Memoirs Of A Hokage
by raidensokwl
Summary: Due to a turn of events, someone survived that fateful night. What sort of impact will this persons survival have in the Shinobi World and the Narutoverse in general and more importantly, with Naruto? Tune in to find out.
1. Just Another Day In The Office

**I had to get this one out of my head. It's safe to assume canon will have little to no influence on this story.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

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><p><span>Just Another Day In The Office<span>

(Konoha - Konoha Hospital)

At first, it was a slight twitch of the eyelids before they slowly opened themselves to reveal the blue orbs that they had kept hidden. After revealing half of the eyes, they immediately shut themselves before slowly changing between open and closed as they got used to the light in the room they were in.

This took several seconds before the eyes were adjusted to the light, but it still hurt. So he kept one eye closed and the other slightly opened as he took in his surroundings. Everything was blurry but he could make out the colour of the walls; white, the bedside table beside him, the window across the room being guarded by two bland curtains and through the window, the most famous monument in his home, the Hokage Monument.

His brain, although slightly groggy and slowly getting itself back to its usual state of function, had immediately come to the conclusion that he was in a hospital. He had yet to come across a place that had so much white or smelled of anti-sceptic that wasn't a hospital of some sort.

It also sort of helped that he could hear the sounds of hospital machinery in the room.

"Oh you're awake." A voice he had since he was young spoke from someplace in the room, "About time. You know how to make a man worry."

It took him a few seconds to get his mouth to work and let his voice be heard, "J-Jiraiya-sensei." Kami, his mouth and lips were dry. It felt like he had been left stranded in the deserts of Kaze no Kuni for days on end without any sort of water.

Mind you, he would be dead if he had gone for that long without any sort of water.

He heard the sound of movement coming from a corner of the room which was followed by what he could tell being a chair being dragged to the side of the bed, "Easy kid. Don't talk, just cause you're awake doesn't mean you're back to your old sprightly self."

He slowly nodded his head, "W-Water."

Jiraiya merely acknowledged the request and seemed to have known before hand as on the bedside table was a plastic cup filled with the clear, tasteless liquid. Jiraiya grabbed a small remote for the bed before clicking a button that reclined the bed that the man was in to bring his head up.

He then proceeded to bring the cup to the man's lips and helped him drink the water.

As the water entered his mouth and throat, the man winced slightly as it hurt, but at the same time, he couldn't help but admit it felt good feeling the cold liquid travel its way towards his stomach.

It meant he was alive.

Alive to keep the promise he had made to his wife.

Jiraiya looked on at him with a small smile, "Welcome back to the land of the living." He said as he pulled the cup away from his mouth.

"It's good to be back." The man replied. If it wasn't for the slight movement of the lips, Jiraiya wouldn't have known that he had tried to smile.

"Yeah…" Jiraiya said slowly as he relaxed into his chair, "Because you're to have to eventually tell me what went wrong."

The man's now full opened eyes started closing, "Later sensei." He slowly said as he drifted off into sleep, "Maybe when I don't feel like death."

Jiraiya let out a playful scoff as he allowed his student to feel the lull of sleep, "The mouth on you." He got up from his seat and headed for the door, "Just don't die in your sleep or something. Konoha still needs its Yondaime Hokage."

XxX

(Mountains' Graveyard)

"**Alright, we're here.**" A man with a strange appearance of half of his body being white and the other black with green hair and his upper body encased in what looked like to be a venus-flytrap said, "What did you call us for?"

The question was directed towards a man whose face was shadowed by his black hair, "I need your help to remove something of my persons."

"What kind of something?" The white half of the man asked.

The man in question simply turned around and pointed onto the skin of his back, "This."

The man looked at the back of the man before the black half spoke up, "**Is that...?"**

At that prompting the dark haired man simply nodded his head, "Yes. A Hiraishin (Flying Thunder God) tag." He said as he turned around and tossed a kunai at the green haired man which he caught, "It would be prudent if you could cut of the skin the seal is placed on. I don't think I need to tell you what would happen if we don't get rid of it."

"Yeah, yeah, we get it." The man said as he made his way towards the other man, "**This is going to hurt you know?"** Flaying skin sort of hurt.

"I don't feel pain." The man simply retorted as he turned around, "But do it quickly. I have things to do and plan for."

"Alright, alright." The white half of the man said as they began to cut of the skin the Hiraishin formula was placed on, "I guess we won't be able to eat this piece of flesh will we?" The white half asked. The black half merely rolled his eye, "**No shit. It's got a that fucking tag on it. I don't know about you, but I rather not have the Yondaime fucking Hokage randomly appear in front of me with whoever he decides to bring to finish what he thinks will be Tobi here."**

Because after facing Tobi, the Yondaime would definitely be bringing some very, very, very big guns if he thought he would be coming to blows with the man that had subdued the Kyuubi no Youko and had used it to attack his village.

"Who would he be able to bring anyway?" The white half asked absentmindedly as they continued to flay away the skin. The black half would have face-faulted if it could at that question before answering, "**Tell me you're not that stupid. Who **_**do**_** you think he won't bring?" **Because from what they had learned about how the Yondaime had come to the conclusion that Tobi was Uchiha Madara, he wouldn't spare any sort of thought in bringing the best of the absolute best.

Konoha had a quite the list of powerful ninjas in its ranks. Two of the three Densetsu no Sannin in Jiraiya and Orochimaru, the man who taught them, the Sandaime Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen, someone that could and would still be able to tangle with the very best the Shinobi World had to offer.

"Okay, okay. No need to get snappy." The white half stated before smirking, "There done." He said at their handiwork as the bloody piece of skin fell to the floor.

Tobi merely rolled his shoulders as he could feel the artificial right side of his body immediately begin to move to regrow the skin that had been cut off. He turned around before quickly casting a small fire jutsu to destroy the piece of skin.

He could have used it to lay a trap for whenever the Yondaime appeared to finish things off but he doubted it would have worked. The man had shown himself to be think as fast as he could move.

There was no incentive for him to risk everything he had in the works against a long shot scenario that may or may not work. Right now, he was just going to let the Yondaime bask in his victory as he continued to lay the foundations necessary to the completion of his goal.

"How are we with the Akatsuki?" Tobi asked as he slipped on a dark, form fitting shirt.

"**That little project is progressing rather nicely."** The black half answered, "**We've got every set up in Amegakure."** It was the white half that spoke next, "But we're still having some difficulty finding the members we want. So that might take some time."

"How long?"

The man shrugged, "It's rather difficult finding the very creme de la creme of nuke-nins. We're talking about S-rank ninjas here. They don't grow on trees."

Tobi merely levelled an even gaze at the man, "Watch yourself Zetsu."

"Eh sorry about that. Stress was getting to me and all that." White Zetsu said in appeasement much to the amusement of the black half, "**But we have managed to locate some promising recruits."**

"Names?"

"**Akasuna no Sasori and Kakuzu of the Five Hearts."** Black Zetsu answered, "But getting them to join will be hard enough...well for Sasori maybe, don't know about Kakuzu. All he seems to care about is money." White Zetsu said as he added more information about their possible recruits.

"Then we offer him money." Tobi said, his tone filled with finality. He knew who Kakuzu was. He was a formidable ninja in his own right. To be able to go against the Shodaime Hokage in a battle and survive was a commendable trait. How he had managed to survive for so long and still be an active ninja was beyond him, "We have more than enough money to entice him."

Zetsu nodded his head, "Alright. So with those two along with Nagato and Konan in Ame, that's four. How many did you say we need again?" The white half asked as he looked at Tobi, "**We need 10."** The black half answered, "**We need 10 members for the group."**

"So we need to find five more huh?"

"It maybe six actually." Tobi corrected. He saw the questioning look from Zetsu, "I won't be in Akatsuki officially. I'll merely be the organisations benefactor and work from the shadows until I think its time to join." He turned around and began walking towards the entrance of his hide-out, "But it might be five as you say. There might be a promising recruit in Kirigakure." And with that, he left in a vortex originating from one of his eyes.

XxX

(Konoha - Several Days Later)

"I'm sorry for the trouble I've put you in with the village and everything Sandaime-sama." Minato apologised as he sat straight up in his bed. In his arms was a baby with short blonde hair and whisker marks wrapped up in a blanket.

"It's alright." A middle-aged man with showing wrinkles said with a good natured chuckle as he smoked from his pipe, "It's the list that I could do whilst you recuperate."

"The best you can do Minato is heal up real quick and get back on that seat before sensei's hair grey some more." Jiraiya quipped from his place at the side of the room. The tall ninja leaning his back against the wall, right beside the window, "It's the least you can do."

Minato raised an eyebrow, "Least I could do?" He repeated with interest, "Did something happen? In fact, how long have I been out for?"

Jiraiya and Hiruzen looked at each other before looking back at the youngest person in the room, "Minato-kun, you have been in a coma for the past couple of months." Hiruzen answered the blonde Hokage.

Minato blinked his eyes in surprise, "Couple of months?"

"Well to be exact…" Jiraiya began, "Three months."

"Three months?" Minato repeated, hardly believing it before looking down at the baby, "So I've been in a coma for three months?"

Jiraiya nodded, "Yeah."

Minato frowned slightly, "So I figure that something happened in these three months?"

Hiruzen slowly nodded his head, "Yes. Some people didn't think you were going to wake-up and would have liked for you to be replaced."

"And by 'some people' sensei meant Danzo." The tallest man in the room said with a voice filled with distaste for the man. Everything about the man didn't suit Jiraiya in the slightest.

"Danzo-san huh…" Minato repeated before looking back up to face the others, "I can't really say I'm surprised." He had been in enough meetings to know how the man worked. He viewed people like himself, the Sandaime and Jiraiya as weak simply for the ideologies they followed.

"I wasn't either." Jiraiya chimed in from the side, "So now that you're fully awake and lucid. Would you mind telling us what happened that night? Cause I doubt the seal failed with you checking and reinforcing it." Jiraiya was man enough to admit that his apprentice was a much more capable fuuinjutsu user than him. But then again, he would also say that was only because what he learned about the specialised art was because his wife hailed from a clan known for their sheer expertise in it.

Minato merely nodded with a serious expression on his face, "I was going to do that anyway. I take it the room is secure?"

Hiruzen merely made a slight motion of the hand. The atmosphere in the room changed slightly, "Now it is."

Minato closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, "Alright…" He began, "This is what happened…" He began to regale the two powerful men in the room with how he had been doing his job of reinforcing Kushina's seal as she was giving birth to their baby.

Everything was going well and Naruto had been born safely enough before the appearance of the masked man who had taken Naruto hostage and had used him to separate Kushina away from him.

He continued to tell them of how he had left Naruto in one of his safe houses before going back to save Kushina, leaving her in the safehouse and then coming back to Konoha just in time to transfer away the Bijuudama (Tailed Beast Ball) before the masked man had decided to come handle him personally and how he dueled the man and forcing him to retreat.

"...Uchiha Madara?" Jiraiya repeated slowly, as if testing the word as he couldn't believe the conclusion that his apprentice had come to about the identity of the man, "You honestly want me to believe the man who had attacked you to be Uchiha Madara?" Cause if this was some sort of trick to wind him up, it wasn't funny.

Madara was right there with being _the_ boogey man of the ninja world.

Minato shrugged with an unsure frown on his face, "I don't know to be honest. It might have been or it might not have been." He said before relaxing his face, "I came to that conclusion because of the information I had managed to acquire at the time."

The man knew how to enter the barriers of Konoha undetected, the time when a female jinchuuriki would be at it weakest and also had the ability to impose his will on the Kyuubi no Youko, the most powerful entity in the Elemental Nations. No-one could really fault him for that.

"Whether it was Madara or not," Hiruzen said with a dead serious face, "This news is most unsettling."

Minato merely nodded his head in agreement before taking on a sombre look, "I'm sorry about Biwako-san Sandaime-san. If I had been more aware-."

Hiruzen held up a hand to stop the young Hokage from speaking, "Don't apologise about that Minato-kun. You had more pressing issues that needed your immediate attention. And besides what is done is done." A small, solemn smile came across the Sandaime's own face, "And I am sorry about what happened to Kushina. She was such a nice girl."

"A real firecracker." Jiraiya quipped from the side.

Minato smiled, "Yeah she was." He said quietly before blinking in realisation, "Oh right, I guess you figured out that the Kyuubi was sealed inside Naruto by now haven't you?" He said as he indicated towards his sleeping son. The two ninjas nodded their heads, "Well, sorry to say, you're sort of wrong by that."

This caused the two elder ninja to quirk their eyebrows in curiosity, "What do you mean by that?" Jiraiya asked, "Me and sensei saw the seal on the kids navel. And I have to say, you and Kushina would be the only one's ingenious enough to be able to somehow put Shisho Fuuin (Four Symbols Seal) together like that. The kids' the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki."

"Well he is, but at the same time he isn't." Minato said with a shake of the head.

Jiraiya looked at Naruto with a blank stare, "You're not making much sense here kid."

Minato let out a small laugh, "I guess that's true. I'll have to show you won't I?" He said as he gently passed the sleeping Naruto to the Sandaime who took him in his arms. Minato proceeded to get onto his feet and lifted up his shirt and started moulding chakra.

What happened next caused the two other people in the room to look at Minato with looks of shock on their faces, "Is that…?" Jiraiya trailed off as he lamely raised a finger to the seal around his blonde apprentice's navel.

"Yeah." Minato said as he lowered his seal, "That's a seal. Like Naruto's."

Hiruzen looked at Minato after regaining his usual calm composure, "I don't understand. How?" And he rarely never understood anything. He was the man known as 'the Professor'. The man who knew a little bit about everything.

Minato pointed towards Naruto, "My son is a jinchuuriki, but so am I."

Jiraiya looked at Minato, "I'm pretty sure there was only one biju that went loose a few months ago…"

Minato sighed, "Alright, I guess it's story time again…"

(Flashback)

"_...Gotta put out a barrier…" Mintao breathed out as he landed in a clearing a fair distance away from the Kyuubi. In his arms was his redheaded wife and his barely an hour old son._

_Kushina, who had a deathly complexion about her looked up at her husband weakly, "My chakra's almost drained but…" She let out just as weakly as she looked before gold-coloured chains shot out of her back and encompassed a large area and also tied up the Kyuubi._

_The baby in Minato's arms awoke and started crying. Kushina looked at the bundle with an apologetic expression, "Sorry Naruto, I didn't mean to wake you up."_

_Minato looked on at the size of the barrier, rather amazed that his wife could do this with the level of chakra she still had, "Kushina…!" He called out in worry. She was already weakened enough as it was. He didn't want her to risk herself like this._

_Kushina looked up at Minato with a slight smile on her lips as blood poured out, "I'll drag the Kyuubi...back...and die with it." She paused for breath, "That'll take care of it for a while. It's the only way to save both of you with the little chakra that I have left." Even though she was an Uzumaki, surviving for as long as she did after a bijuu extraction was quite the feat. She knew her body well and knew enough that she wouldn't live to see throughout this night, "Thank you for everything…" She finished off with a smile on her face._

_Minato looked on before looking down, "Kushina you…" He struggled to say as he found himself breaking up, "You made me into your husband..._You_ made me into the Yondaime Hokage..._You_ made me into this boy's father...I…" He struggled to say with a saddened expression on his face._

_Kushina looked at him with a gentle expression, "Don't look so sad…It will be rather embarrassing if people knew the Hokage was such a crybaby…" She weakly quipped, "Don't worry...I'm happy, happy that it's our son's birthday."_

"_Like if I imagined surviving and the three...Of us living together…" She continued, "It makes me happy."_

_This time, the tears that had been building up in the young Hokage's eyes freely started to fall. Kushina looked on at her crying son, "If I had any regrets, it would be that I can't see him grow-up."_

_Minato looked down before looking back up with a resolve on his face as he wiped away the tears, "Kushina, there's still a chance for us both to see our son."_

_The redheaded mother looked at Minato, "Huh?"_

_Minato looked up at Kushina, "I'll seal the last of your chakra into Naruto with a __Hakke no Fuuin (Eight Trigrams Sealing)__..." He explained, "Then I'll lead the Kyuubi away and seal it away with a seal only a non-jinchuuriki like me can use, the Shiki Fuujin (Dead Demon Consuming Seal)."_

_Kushina eye's widened in surprise, "But that...The user will be!"_

_Minato continued, "But I'll only be able to seal away half of the power of the Kyuubi." Trying to seal the sheer amount of power the Kyuubi possessed was something the likes of Uzumaki Mito could do. But she had long since died and she never left any notes of what type of seal she had used to create such a powerful seal that kept the full, monstrous power of the Kyuubi in one body without destroying it, "I can't let the Kyuubi be revived without a jinchuuriki. The balance of power will be destroyed. I'll permanently seal away half of the fox's power into myself and the rest…" He looked down at Naruto and remembered the words his sensei had told him, "Into Naruto, with the Hakke Fuuin."_

_Kushina looked on in shock. Minato noticed the look, "I know what you want to say…" He said lowly, he for one couldn't believe he was actually doing it, "But Jiraiya-sensei once told me the world will be going through a great revolution and I know two things; that masked man will be the harbinger and Naruto will be the one to stop him."_

"_But Minato…" _

_Minato smiled as he started going through seals, "Have a little faith, he is our-Kushina?" He let out in surprise as he found himself restrained by chains, "What are you doing?"_

_Kushina smiled weakly at her husband, "I can't just let you die and leave Naruto all alone…" She said weakly as she got to her feet._

_Minato struggled against the chains and found them suppressing his chakra, "But the Kyuubi…!"_

"_Just leave that to me…" She said with a resolve to her voice, "You know I trust you right Minato?"_

_Minato nodded his head, "Yes."_

"_Then trust me on this…" She said as she went through hand seals herself, "__Ten no Juu Fuuin (Celestial Beast Sealing Technique)__!" Formula erupted from the soles of Kushina's feet. She cast a smile in Naruto and Minato's direction, "Make sure he grows up to be a good boy okay?"_

_(_End Flashback)

"...And then she ended up sealing the the Yin chakra of the Kyuubi into me and the Yang into Naruto." Minato finished off with a downcast look on his face.

Silence enveloped the room for a few moments before Jiraiya broke it, "So you're both Jinchuuriki now?"

Minato nodded his head, "Yeah, we just hold half of the Kyuubi's full power."

"And we're the only ones who know this." Hiruzen said as he rolled his pipe to the side of his mouth, "And I think it should be kept that way."

Naruto's existence as a Jinchuuriki was already out in the open to only a select few and Hiruzen was under no illusion that it would be kept that way forever. The only good thing that came out of this was the Minato was still alive and that when knowledge of Naruto's status later spread throughout the village, people would be less tempted to act upon their desire.

Minato nodded his head as he could see where the Sandaime was going with this. The people of Konoha probably wouldn't react amicably to the knowledge of a Jinchuuriki leader. Even more so with the news of what the Yondaime Mizukage of Kirigakure was doing to the Kekkei Genkai users of his country.

The Mizukage might have closed down all the borders, but news still spread throughout the world of what was happening in his country. He had been in the job only for a few months before deciding to commit genocide. That sort of set a standard on people's perceptions about Jinchuuriki.

This wasn't the early days of the villages were Jinchuurikis were a villages secret weapon. During the wars, Jinchuuriki's became much more known as people learned what they were and what they held. Things tended to not be secret anymore during wartime.

Yeah...it was probably better if Minato's status was kept between these three people in the room.

Hiruzen got up from his seat and passed Naruto back to Minato and made for the door, "Well, I should head back to the office and all. I do believe my break is over." He said as he let out a plume of smoke, "I do hope you recover quickly Minato-kun. I was rather enjoying my retirement." He finished as he left through the door and closed it behind him.

Jiraiya scratched his chin in thought, "...Isn't he a member of the council now? How is that being retired?" Hiruzen was very much still involved with the day to day goings of the government of the village. He would even go on to say that he was the definite second-in-command of the village in cases like these.

Minato shrugged as he went back into his bed, rubbing Naruto's whiskered cheeks, getting the little blonde to scrunch up his nose, "Leave Hiruzen-san alone, sensei. I'm sure being a member of the council is less work than being Hokage."

Jiraiya grinned and gave his student a thumbs up, "And that's exactly why I didn't take the job." All Minato could do was sigh and roll his eyes.

XxX

(Couple of Months Later)

Minato had been forced to stay in the hospital for several months due to the fact that he had suffered rather extensive damage to his chakra circulatory system from having half of a damned chakra battery stuffed into him without his wife checking to see if it could fit. This had caused some rather strange results.

For starters, Minato always had powerful and larger-than-normal chakra reserves. Large and powerful enough that people would consider them Kage-level, and now with the Yin half of the Kyuubi inside him, his chakra had become a bit more potent.

His reserves hadn't been drastically altered to the likes of someone like the Yondaime Raikage and his younger brother. The closest comparison would have been that previously, it took a lot out of him to teleport the Kyuubi from its original position in the village to a safe distance outside it, but now, he doubted he would be able to feel the strain of such a thing.

Many would have seen this as a good thing, but he didn't. Simply because of one thing...chakra control. His chakra control was shot to hell. And now he had to work on regaining his usual level of chakra control...but now, it would be even more difficult than before.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but drop his head and slam it on the desk in front of him in despair. The whole increased chakra levels was nice and all, but he would have given his left arm and then some for his chakra control.

Ah well, what was life without a little bit of struggle? With enough work, he was sure he could get back to his original level of control.

"Sensei, are you alright?"

Minato sighed as he raised his head and looked at the other person in the office of the Hokage, "I'm fine Kakashi." He said with a lame wave of the hand.

Kakashi was a young man in his mid-to-late teens with gravity defying silver hair. He wore the standard attire that was best recognised to belong to Konoha's Anbu unit with a dog-like mask with markings. He was currently stood in front of the Hokage's desk at attention ready for his orders.

Kakashi merely nodded, "You have a mission for me?"

Minato nodded, "High priority."

This got the silver-haired man's attention, "What is it?"

"I need someone to look after Naruto."

"You need a babysitter then."

"Not 'look' look after." Minato said as he began to correct him, "I mean protect him. Like a personal bodyguard." Children of high-ranking people like him are always popular targets for kidnappings by various ambitious persons or ninja villages. If they could hide their involvement of course.

Even more so for Naruto.

People knew he was the Yondaime Hokage's son and by some sort of miracle, knowledge that he was the Jinchuuriki of one half of the Kyuubi's power had been restrained to very few people in the village.

Kakashi slowly nodded his head in understanding, "So I'll be something like a glorified babysitter then?"

Minato laughed lightly, "...I guess it would be something like that yeah…" He admitted, "But don't you think it would be better if it sounded like 'Protector'?"

"It's still the same thing." Kakashi said with a shrug, "So where is he?" He asked, ready to go out and carry out his new orders.

"He's currently being looked after by Kurenai back home." Minato said as he relaxed into his chair and Kakashi nodded, "Don't stick to the shadows. I'm sure she would love the company." He added and Kakashi nodded some more before disappearing in a smokeless shunshin.

Minato sighed as he turned his chair to look at the village. Kakashi was still withdrawing himself from the world. He had thought by making him an Anbu under his personal command, he would be able to make Kakashi pull himself out of whatever shell he had encased himself in, but it seemed that was unlikely.

A small twitch of the mouth caused him to think otherwise. He had been slowly opening up over the past few months. That was news to be happy about.

With that thought, Minato got up from his chair and stretched himself to relieve himself of whatever knots that were in his body before heading for the door.

He walked in silence through the hallways of the Hokage Tower towards his intended destination. As always, a protective detail of Anbu followed him wherever he went, just like how his son had one. Even though every single one would gladly give their lives to protect him, it was sort of unanimous throughout the whole village and among the shinobi ranks that Namikaze Minato was the last person on the planet who needed a protective detail.

XxX

(Hokage Tower - Meeting Room 1)

"Sorry I'm late." Minato apologised sheepishly as he entered the meeting room, "I'm still getting back into things." He said as he took a free seat on a chair that allowed him to have a view of the rooms occupants.

The room itself was fairly small for a meeting room. It didn't need to be big, it wasn't a reception hall for large delegates or anything of the likes. It was small because this was the type of room where all the negotiations would take place.

And when it wasn't being used for diplomatic purposes, it would be used by the high-ranking officials of Konoha to meet.

"It's alright Minato-san." The bespectacled former teammate of the Sandaime Hokage said, "You have only just been released from hospital. It's understandable for you to be slowly easing back into your duties."

Minato gave a nod to the man, "Thank you for understanding." The young Hokage noted the other people in the room which included Hiruzen and his former teammates and fellow councillors, Koharu and Danzo, "So what are the topics of the day?"

Minato, even though he didn't show it, immediately went on edge when the heavily bandaged Danzo immediately stepped up first, "The first topic is what you should do about the Uchiha clan."

Minato internally frowned. He hadn't been surprised this was the first topic that Danzo had brought up for the meeting. Hiruzen had informed him about all the developments that had occurred throughout the village during his stay in the hospital.

The Uchiha being the most brought up subject in all council meetings.

Danzo and Koharu and Homura to a lesser extent had serious distrust and suspiciousness of the clan. The sudden attack by the Kyuubi just several months prior had seemingly fanned the flames of distrust among them.

Minato and Hiruzen both let out a sigh, "Didn't Hiruzen-san inform you of what occurred on that day?" Minato said as he sat up in his chair, "The Uchiha clan wasn't complicit in that attack."

Danzo merely scoffed, "And how would you know?" He asked before opening his only visible eye to look at Minato with a scrutinous gaze, "You would let us believe that a relic of the past, Uchiha Madara, someone the Shodai had killed in their confrontation was still alive after all these years?"

He could understand where the man was coming from, even Minato didn't really believe that.

"Well not exactly." Minato admitted, "But I would have hoped you would believe me that the man who attacked me wasn't a part of the Uchiha clan."

It seemed as if Danzo was to open his mouth once more only to be beaten by Koharu, "And if you would excuse me from asking, but how are you certain that this...man who attacked you isn't a part of the Uchiha clan?"

"Because of his chakra." Minato replied coolly, "I admit, I'm not as powerful a sensor like the Nidaime who could even tell what clan someone belonged to from their chakra alone." Minato admitted, his voice holding a tint of admiration for the late Hokage. And why shouldn't he? The man was a damn genius and one of the pioneers of Jikukan Ninjutsu (Space-Time Ninjutsu). He wouldn't have the Hiraishin if it wasn't for that man, "But I'm well versed in all the chakra signatures of every ninja in the village. And that man didn't have the chakra signature of any shinobi in the Uchiha clan." And no-one could change their signature. Sure, ninja could change their appearance thanks to a Henge (Transformation), but their chakra signature? Not a chance.

And what was even more disturbing or strange was that the man's chakra was just...weird. He didn't know how to describe it other than that simple fact that it was weird.

"Even so…" Danzo began as he cleared his throat, "The Uchiha are to not be trusted."

Just what was this man's problem against the clan? Didn't he have an Uchiha in his team in his younger days? An Uchiha who loved the village more than he did his own clan? Did he think that all Uchiha were inherently bad or something?

Hiruzen sighed, "I believe that the Uchiha should be left alone for now." He said, speaking for the first time, "Until something concrete that demands our attention and suspicion occurs, then we shall continue this discussion."

Danzo was about to retort but was outvoted as the others agreed with Hiruzen on leaving the matter alone for the moment. This wasn't a time to show weakness to the world. Every hidden village currently had their eyes firmly on them to see what would happen.

If they started scrutinising one of their clans, one of the founding clans even, it would show that the village didn't have any trust in one of their most powerful clan. The other villages would surely jump on this.

"So…" Minato began testingly, this next matter having attracted his attention the moment he had heard of it, "What all this about disappearances?"

XxX

Minato sighed as he stepped into his home. He was rather glad to be back home but at the same time found it strange to be in a house where he wouldn't be able to hear Kushina's voice or taste her cooking...however mediocre it was.

"Long day kid?"

Minato didn't even bother registering the voice as he moved through the living room towards the kitchen, "You have no idea sensei." He replied as he stopped and rummaged his fridge, "What are you doing here anyway? Shouldn't you be checking up on your network or 'researching'?" He asked as he pulled out a carton of milk.

From his place on the sofa, Jiraiya merely shrugged, "I can do that any time I want." He said rather flippantly. Jiraiya was always a free spirit in that manner, "I just came to see how your first week back on the job was."

"I think my hair is going to turn grey." Was all that Minato said to answer his sensei's question.

Jiraiya flourished his hands in a grand manner, "And that is why I never took the job." He said with a large grin on his face, "I rather like having my hair keep its natural colour."

Minato just looked at him, "Your hair is white sensei." He doubted it could even turn grey. There had to be some sort of colour. White was just like gray, just really, really light.

Jiraiya scoffed, "What's your point?" He asked and waited for a reply, "Exactly." It felt good getting one over your most prized student. Especially being the smart-ass that he was, "You know that Kakashi kid is around right?"

Minato nodded as he slowly drank his drink, "Yeah, I gave him the assignment of looking after Naruto."

"You know he's Anbu right?" The older man said with an amused tone in his voice, "Not a babysitter. In fact, I liked the other baby sitter you hired. The dark haired one with the exotic eyes."

Minato just stopped drinking his milk and looked at Jiraiya, "She's like sixteen sensei…" He said slowly, "I thought you weren't interested in any girl under the age of eighteen?"

Jiraiya gave him a cheesy grin and snapped his fingers and pointed right at Minato, "But that doesn't mean I can't keep a look out on the local talent." He sighed wistfully, "I can just tell she's going to be a stunner in the future."

"You worry me sometimes sensei…" Minato said, slightly perturbed. It was probably for the best in the future if he tried to limit Jiraiya's influence on Naruto. That clearly wouldn't end well...his status as godfather be damned.

"You're no fun." Jiraiya said with a wave of the hand, "So seriously, how's it being back in the job?"

Minato sighed as he looked down at the ground, "Could be worse." Actually things could have been much worse than they were now that he thought about it. Apparently, knowledge that he was still alive had caused some villages to stop whatever probings they had been doing. Sometimes, it surprised Minato about the influence he wielded. And he was still coming to terms with it, "You would think we would be running out of money with the damage caused by the Kyuubi."

Jiraiya smirked as he relaxed in his seat and crossed one leg over the other, "Oh yeah, sensei told me. That was surprising."

What was surprising was the sudden jump in job requests after the Kyuubi attack. This was surprising and strange because when something like that happened, the opposite happened. Clients would take their jobs elsewhere as one would expect from a disaster like the one that had struck Konoha, a lot of shinobi would have died.

A lot of shinobi _did _die. More accurately, a couple of thousand ninja along with roughly the same amount of civilians. It was obvious Konoha wasn't going to be back to full strength for at least a half a decade at least.

That in itself didn't turn away business. Somehow, the fact that he had survived and had been wrongly reported been the one to defeat the Kyuubi, even though it had been Kushina, had led to a boom in business.

...Which brought along a load of problems by itself.

Some of these problems were rather simple. They couldn't turn away the requests. Money was money. You never know when a lull in jobs would come, so it was better to be just ready for it and during that lull, have a lot in the bank to make sure you still functioned with a lower income.

And since they couldn't turn them away, it meant sending shinobi out to do said job requests. Nothing wrong with that, except they were being spread dangerously thin and are close to becoming over-worked. The problem with this was that to meet the requests, they had to occasionally dip into the Home Guard so to speak.

Which was rather dangerous since that guard was responsible for protecting Konoha and in extent patrol Hi no Kuni's borders. By dipping into that force, the number of available ninja for such duties would be lowered. Anyone observant enough would be able to notice the change in patrols.

And if they could notice, they might try to take advantage of it.

Kumo was doing such a thing, although Minato was sure it was mostly a reaction to see if Konoha still had the force to call themselves the strongest village. He was nearly 100% positive it had nothing to do with changed patrols or anything of the sorts.

"Apparently," Minato began as he sighed in amusement, "I'm _really _famous."

"Well yeah, did you think we would let anyone become Hokage?" Jiraiya deadpanned. It wasn't like they were going to pick some random shinobi and make him Hokage. A Kage was the strongest ninja in the village. He had to have the reputation to make others think that it was a really bad idea to come to blows with him and his village.

It was as simple as that.

"Well, they nearly let _you_ become Hokage didn't they?"

Jiraiya smirked in amusement as he let the slight jab at him go, "And that's only because who wouldn't want the Gama Sennin of Mt. Myoboku as Hokage? Let's face it kid, I'm a shining example of a man among this planet."

"If you say so sensei." Minato replied easily enough as he took to his milk once more.

XxX

Naruto's room, the room that he and Kushina had spent several months working on was rather...bold and daring if he had to say so. He didn't have much of a voice in the entire thing. He just mostly followed Kushina's orders as to what the room should have been like.

The walls were a vibrant orange, honestly, Minato had an inkling that was because the colour was a mixture of orange and red. That was Kushina's way of meeting him in the middle it seemed.

Neatly stacked to one side of the room where various toys and learning utensils for a young baby. He had even gone to install a double futon in the room just in case she wanted to sleep in the room with their son.

He didn't mind in the slightest.

Kushina had been utterly ecstatic about having a family. Sure, they had been married, but nothing completed her image of a family than having a child with the person she loved.

The thought of Kushina not being able to enjoy this caused Minato silently clench his fist in anger, even though as he looked down at his sleeping son, his face didn't register that anger. Madara or whoever he was, he was going to rule the day that he took Kushina's dream away from her.

Jiraiya had told him about the hatred and revenge of the ninja world. He understood, he really did. But what he was going to bring down on that man if they ever met again wasn't going to be revenge, it was going to be retribution.

He clearly had to pay for his crimes didn't he?

"Good night Naruto." Minato said as he pecked the young blonde's head before leaving the room.

* * *

><p><span>Stats<span>

Konoha Shinobi

Namikaze Minato

Ninjutsu: 5

Taijutsu: 5

Genjutsu: 4

Intelligence: 5

Strength: 3

Speed: 5

Stamina: 4.5

Hand Seals: 5

Total: 36.5

Uzumaki Kushina

Ninjutsu: 5

Taijutsu: 3.5

Genjutsu: 3

Intelligence: 3.5

Strength: 3.5

Speed: 4

Stamina: 5

Hand Seals: 4

Totals: 31.5

Jiraiya

Ninjutsu: 5

Taijutsu: 4.5

Genjutsu: 3

Intelligence: 4.5

Strength: 4.5

Speed: 4.5

Stamina: 5

Hand Seals: 4.5

Total: 35.5

Sarutobi Hiruzen

Ninjutsu: 5

Taijutsu: 5

Genjutsu: 5

Intelligence: 5

Strength: 3

Speed: 3

Stamina: 3

Hand Seals: 5

Total: 34

Shimura Danzo

Ninjutsu: 5

Taijutsu: 3.5

Genjutsu: 4.5

Intelligence: 4.5

Strength: 3

Speed: 3.5

Stamina: 3.5

Hand Seals: 5

Total: 33

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> **Many of you might be saying I may have overdone with the stats on Minato. Honestly, I don't really think that I have. According to my research site, Minato was some sort of prodigy among prodigy. Jiraiya, the guy that Itachi and Kisame admit that they wouldn't win against if they fought together _with_ reinforcements says that there hasn't been another ninja of Minato's calibre since his death. **

**I don't know about you, but he might as well be saying that Minato was some sort of walking talent. I think I'm rather underplaying him to be honest.**

**And about Tobi's and Zetsu's stats. Those are all yours. Do come up with your own.**

**Leave a review!**

**Raiden.**


	2. Brand New Day

**Sir sleeps all day everyday 12: You have a point. Sort of forgot about that little nugget of information. But for the sake of my pride, I'm going to say he didn't notice it because it was on his back.**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, if I did, it would certainly not be a shonen manga :(

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 2<span>

Brand New Day

(Four Years Later)

"Come on Tou-san, lemme be a ninja already!"

Minato sighed as he walked through one of the villages' many streets, his son perched on his shoulders, as they headed towards one of the parks, "I thought we had this conversation already?" He was quite sure he had asked for the very same thing this morning, only for him to turn it down. Why in all honesty would he let his three year old son become a ninja? Long before he had even enjoyed his childhood.

He didn't want his son to lose his innocence so quickly in the murky business that ninja involved themselves in.

The young blonde haired boy on his shoulders nodded his head, "We did." He said in agreement as he slowly shook his head, "But you never said why I can't be a ninja!"

Young Naruto really didn't understand it. He didn't get why his tou-san didn't let him become a ninja. He knew for a fact that he wouldn't settle for anything less other than to become even stronger than his tou-san. He wouldn't settle for anything less. No matter how hard he had to work.

Minato let out an amused sigh before moving his hand to lightly flick his son's forehead, "Because I said so."

Naruto pouted grumbled as he rubbed his forehead with his rather small and adorable hands, "That's not a reason!" That sounded like something he would say when he wanted to do something but couldn't think of a reason why he wanted to do it in the first place.

'Tell that to your mother.' Minato mused to himself. He had been at the end of that declaration many a time during his relationship with his now deceased wife.

The relatively young Hokage knew that it was rather hypocritical of himself to deny his son a chance to become a ninja at such a young age. The majority of ninja clans in Konoha nowadays and probably everywhere else started training their young to become shinobi from the moment they could walk or speak, depending on the practices of the clan in question.

His own student Kakashi being a prime example, he had graduated from the academy when he was only a year older than Naruto, along with other talented prodigies like Uchiha Itachi and Shisui.

But that was only in exceptional circumstances. The enrolment age at the Academy had been steadily increasing over the years since its establishment. During the

"Tell you what," Minato began as he returned the occasional wave, smile and greeting to shopkeepers, workers and the likes as he continued towards his destination, "If I start training you, will you drop the Academy thing until I think you're ready to go?" He asked as he turned onto a small paved path that was the last stretch till he reached the park.

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise which turned into joy. He vigorously nodded his head, "Yeah!" Receiving training from the man that was recognised as the strongest ninja in the village? That was right up there being either a close second or equal first with joining the academy.

Minato laughed lightly, "I thought you would think so." He said as he lifted Naruto off his shoulders and set him down on the ground, "Now go on and play with the other kids." He said with a smile on his face as he lightly shooed him away, "I'll be right here if you need anything."

At being told that his dad was finally going to start training him, playing with other children was the last thing that he wanted, "Can't we just go back home and start training already?" He really wanted to learn how his dad did that teleporting thingy he did.

Minato placed his hands on his hips and tried to give his son a stern look, "Nop. Training time is later, right now, go play with the other children. Friends are important to have you know?"

Naruto pouted, "Okay." He looked up at his father with expectant eyes, "But promise you will train me later?"

The older blonde leaned forward and rested his hands on his knee, "I promise."

"Pinky promise?" The younger one added, holding out his own pinky in a hook like manner.

Minato smiled as he intertwined his own pinky with that of Naruto's, "I promise."

"Alright!" Naruto exclaimed with a grin on his face before running off into the playground where the other children were.

Minato let out a sigh before slinking himself to the nearest park bench that overlooked the playground that he could find and throwing himself on it.

"Must be tough raising such a ball of energy by yourself." A new, female voice said, "He certainly seems like a lively one. Just like Kushina."

Minato blinked before looking towards the source of the voice, "Oh Mikoto." He said in realisation as he looked at the dark-haired friend of his wife, "Didn't see you there." He said as he scooted to the side to make space for the Uchiha matriarch.

Mikoto took that as a sign to take a seat, which she did, "I noticed. He might follow you on looks, but he sure is like Kushina personality wise." She mused with a good-hearted giggle.

Minato just looked at Naruto, "He has more energy than Kushina. It takes the better part of an hour to try and settle him down to get him to sleep." He shook his head in amusement, "I sometimes wonder how can a small body hold so much energy." Then after every single time he thought of that, the answer would come to his mind the fact that his son held one half of the Kyuubi within him, and not just any half of the Kyuubi, the half that represented the energy that represented the body. So it wasn't too much of a stretch to simply blame the boys energetic nature to that.

Mikoto let out an airy laugh, "Well, at least he took features from the both of you."

Minato nodded in agreement with that before looking around, "Are you here with Sasuke?" The Uchiha matriarch nodded her head in confirmation. A small smile crept across Minato's face as he looked back at the playground, "Well, Kushina did want our sons to be friends with each other. Today's a good day as any to introduce them to each other."

Mikoto laughed unsurely at that, "That might be a bit difficult."

Minato raised an eyebrow, "How so?"

"Let's just say Sasuke tries to emulate Itachi as much as he can."

"How is that a problem?" So the younger brother was trying to model himself around the older brother? Nothing was wrong with that. Many younger siblings did that when they absolutely adored their older siblings.

Mikoto just cast Naruto a dry look, "You have met Itachi right? I love him, but sometimes, his personality is rather bland."

Minato just blinked with a blank expression on his face. Now that he thought about it, from the few interactions he's had with the young Uchiha, he always had a stoic and rather indifferent look on his face. He was rather inscrutable if he had to say so himself. Minato would have bet good money that in a contest of who had the better poker face against Danzo and Itachi, Itachi would end up winning, even with his young age.

Minato scratched his cheek in a sheepish manner, "Now that I think about it, he always speaks in monotone…" He trailed off.

"Exactly." Mikoto said with a somewhat victorious tone to her voice, as if she had just proved some sort of point, "Like I said, I love Itachi with all my heart, but I would really like it if Sasuke would end up with a little more social personality. Even just a tiny bit." She finished by emphasizing her plea through her fingers as she separated her index finger and the thumb to reveal a small gap, "Just a tiny bit."

With Naruto, after leaving his father to do whatever he did whenever he brought him to the park, the blonde had quickly found himself embroiled in a game of kickball with the other children in the playground.

The game was going relatively well, his team was winning and he would have nothing less. Minato always said that he was too stubborn to lose and compared his unwillingness to the act with that of his mother and some other woman called Tsunade.

He didn't know who this Tsunade person was, but he didn't care. The only woman he cared about was his mother. The fact that his dad thought they shared a lot of similarities in person was even better for Naruto as he took this that his mother was alive through him somehow.

That's how his childish mind took it and that's what he was going to stick with until he was proven otherwise.

Whilst he had been lost in thought, he quickly managed to get his wits back about him to duck underneath the ball that would have resulted in it hitting his head...hard. That ball was like really, really, really hard.

Especially if it hit someone in the face. Someone would be definitely feeling it for some days.

"Naruto!" One of the other kids on his team cried out, "Why did you dodge it?"

The blonde snapped his head to look at the person, "Well why don't you just stand there and let a ball hit you in the face?" The other kid just looked away, whistling innocently, "Yeah, that's what I thought!"

"Just get the ball!"

"Okay, okay!" The young Namikaze muttered in an angry manner as he turned around in the direction the ball flew in. He quickly saw the red ball as it rolled to a halt a few feet away from a dark-haired boy and onyx coloured eyes. Naruto had noticed him when they were making teams. They had even invited him to play but all he did was look away. Naruto waved his hand at him to get his attention, "Hey!" He called out. This seemingly got the boys attention who looked up at Naruto, "Can you pass us the ball back?" He asked, pointing towards the ball in question.

The dark-haired boy looked at the ball, then back at Naruto before shrugging to himself. He walked towards the ball, hands in pocket all cool-like, before stopping in front of it.

"Are you going to just stare at the ball or are you going to pass it back to us?" Naruto asked as he impatiently tapped his foot. The more time they spent not playing the game, the more momentum they were going to lose. His team was on the upswing and he wanted to maintain that for as long as possible.

The boy looked down at the ball before looking back at Naruto and smirked at him. He lifted his foot back before kicking the ball dead-center and send it flying towards Naruto. This time Naruto didn't dodge and the ball hit him straight on the forehead, causing him to stumble backwards as it bounced off to the side.

Naruto landed on his backside and slowly raised his hand to touch his rather sore forehead as he looked with widened eyes at the dark-haired boy. His eyebrow began to twitch slowly in annoyance at what had just happened before the twitching increased in speed as the other children started laughing.

Naruto sprang to his feet and pointed an accusing finger at the dark haired boy, "Hey!" He yelled at him. Embarass him in front of everybody does he? He would rue the day he messed with Namikaze Naruto, "Why did you do that you jerk?"

The dark-haired boy coolly smirked at Naruto, "You said to pass the ball. I passed it." He answered simply enough, his voice even. He was definitely pulling off the cool look his brother always had.

A tick mark formed on Naruto's head, "How was that a pass!?"

He shrugged as he looked away, "Not my fault you didn't react enough to control it." He replied, "Dobe." He finished off with a satisfied smirk on his face. That was a rather fitting nickname he had thought up as far as he was concerned. The blonde in front of him didn't look at all that smart.

Naruto's hair shadowed his face as his finger still pointed at him in an accusing manner, "...What did you just call me?"

"What, didn't you hear me?" The dark-haired boy said, "I called you dobe, dobe."

Naruto cracked his knuckles as he glared angrily at the dark-haired boy, "I would give you a chance to apologise, but instead, I'm going to kick your ass."

"Heh." The boy scoffed, "If you can even touch me." He had only just recently started his shinobi training in the clan, but he would be damned if he were beaten in a fight by some blonde civilian brat that would more than likely break his hand trying to throw a punch.

He was a bit surprised though when he found the blonde managing to cross the space between them faster than he thought possible for a civilian, but nothing he couldn't handle.

But before both boys could even fight get close into striking distance of each other, they both found themselves being separated by someone who had just appeared inbetween them, 'Fast!' The dark-haired boy thought as he jumped back to look at the person, 'I didn't know anybody could move that fast.' He mused as he finally saw the features of the man and his jaw dropped, "H-Hokage-sama!"

Minato turned to look at the boy with a gentle smile on his face, "And you must be Sasuke-kun. Your mother has speaks highly of you." He said, smile still on his face as his hand went and grabbed the back of Naruto's shirt who was trying to sneak away, "I hope my son here didn't bother you too much." He finished as he lifted Naruto off the ground and placed him in front and patted his head.

Sasuke blinked before looking at Minato then down to Sasuke who had a displeased look on his face, "Son?" The young Uchiha repeated before pointing lamely at Naruto, "He's your son?" Minato nodded, "He doesn't look that special." He had been expecting a lot more from someone related to such a powerful ninja.

Mikoto had managed to finally catch-up with Minato in time to hear what her youngest had just said, "Sasuke." Said ninja looked up at his mother, "Apologise, right now."

Sasuke looked at his mother in slight disbelief. He had merely spoken his mind. Grumbling to himself, he turned to look at Naruto and Minato, "...I'm sorry…" He apologised quietly.

Naruto crossed his arms in a belligerent manner, "Yeah, you better!" The blonde said as he went on a tangent, "If you hadn't, I would have kicked your ass."

Minato just looked down at Naruto with a surprised look, "Naruto!" Where did a four-year old boy learn such a word from? Wait a second, Jiraiya had been in town a couple of weeks back...yeah, that made a lot of sense now that he thought about it, "You apologise too."

Naruto looked up at his father with a look of disbelief on his face, "W-What?" He stuttered out, "Why do I have to apologise, he started it!"

"Doesn't matter," Minato coolly said, "Apologise."

Naruto was about to argue some more but stopped himself when he received _the_ stare from his old man. Sure, Naruto could definitely say he had his dad around his pinky the vast majority of the time, but there were other times where he would put his foot down on some things. Like at occasions as this.

Naruto grumbled as he held out his hand, "I'm sorry."

Sasuke just looked at the hand with the same look of indifference and needed some nudging from his mother to actually take it, "...I was in the wrong too." He struggled out to say. He didn't see anything that he had done as wrong in the slightest.

The two parents just looked on with blank looks on their faces. They both knew the two young boys didn't even mean an ounce of the apology they had just given each other, 'I'm sensing a budding rivalry here...probably something like Obito and Kakashi...' Minato mused to himself.

XxX

"Alright tou-san, I'm ready!" Naruto declared as he stood in the middle of the small training ground that was situated in the backyard of his home, "Let's get the training on!"

Minato blinked as he looked at Naruto, "I thought I said I'll train you later?" After his meeting with Mikoto's son, Naruto had immediately dragged Minato back to their house before rushing to his room and then coming back down dressed in some athletic wear.

"This _is_ later." Naruto responded, randomly throwing punches in the air, seemingly getting himself warmed up for a fight or something that needed him ready for some sort of strenuous exercise.

Minato nodded his head as he hummed in thought, "Is there a way for me to put it off until later that doesn't involve me having to navigate my own house that would more than likely be filled with various traps?"

Naruto shook his head, "Nop."

"I thought as much." Minato deadpanned. Damn, he really picked up his mischievous side from his mother didn't he? Couldn't he at least have picked up some of his cool, collected and calm manner? Cause that would have made things _way_ easier, "Alright, alright, come here."

Naruto's eyes gleamed at the thought of finally beginning his training. He sped towards his father ready to learn something awesome. His dad was the Hokage, he had to have awesome jutsus didn't he?

Oh who was he kidding, of course his dad would have awesome jutsus!

Awesome jutsus that he would use to drive that stupid Sasuke brat into the ground. Make him look like a fool in front of everybody does he? Wait till they saw each other again.

On the other hand, Minato watched with rapt amusement as various emotions went through his sons features, 'Probably thinking about Sasuke.' Yeah, a rivalry had been born. The signs were all there, "Naruto," He finally said to get his sons' attention.

Naruto came out of his musings to look at his old man, "Yeah dad?"

Minato entered lecture mode as soon as he saw his sons' eyes on his persons, "Since you want to become a ninja so badly, you have to know the one thing that separates ninjas from being civilians."

"Something that s-separates ninjas from civilians?" Naruto repeated and Minato noted, "...What does s-separate mean?"

Minato let out a good nature laugh, "I guess that's too big a word for you at the moment." He said as he patted his son's head, getting the boy to angrily trying to stop his hand from doing so, "Well, it means something different from another thing. Like how ninjas have the ability to use chakra that separates us from civilians." He explained as he moved his hand back to his side.

"Chakra." Naruto said as he tested out the word in his mouth, "So is that the stuff that let's you move as fast as you?"

The young father's lips just quirked in amusement, "No, that's all me." He shared with the boy and couldn't help but feel proud of himself when he saw the look of pure adoration in his son's eyes. That was a great feeling to have. He should do this some more, "But for an example…" He said as he brought out a hand in a split-second, an orb of blue energy was in his hand, "This is a jutsu of mine, the Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere). It's made from chakra, the energy that we ninjas use to do our jutsus."

Naruto looked at the blue ball of energy and made a move to touch it only for Minato to quickly cut it off, "You shouldn't do that Naruto. That jutsu is very dangerous." Dangerous as in it could grind someone's innards into nothing more than paste with the right amount of power to it.

Naruto brought back his hand to his side and nodded as he took in his father's warnings, "So are you going to teach me that?" Cause that looked really awesome. He could see it now, fighting off against some sort of enemy ninja and whipping out his Rasengan and smashing it into him.

...Of course not knowing how the jutsu actually worked, Naruto envisioned the end result to be some sort of explosion of cataclysmic proportion.

A very _cool_ explosion of cataclysmic proportion.

Minato shook his head, "You're going to have to unlock your chakra first."

"How do I do that?" The blonde questioned, eager to get his training on the road as quick as possible.

Minato smiled, "Alright, do what I do." He said as he brought his hands into the ram seal, "This is called the ram seal. This is one of the many hand signs people use to summon their chakra, but for some reason beyond me, its mostly common knowledge that the ram sea-."

"Tou-san," Naruto said as he cut into his father's lecture, "You're going off topic again."

Minato stopped and smiled at Naruto uneasily, "...I am?" Naruto nodded with a dry expression, "Oh…" The older blonde would be damned to admit to his son that one of the average characteristics of a powerful ninja was a quirk of some sort, with his being going overboard on certain things. He had an image to maintain. He wouldn't have anything less than being a shining example of pure brilliance to his son, "Well, to draw out your chakra, you need to dig deep within your stomach. Search deep down until you feel a pool of energy, focus on it whilst also trying to get used to it and pull it out. Let me demonstrate for you."

With that, Minato merely closed his eyes and before long a blue started wafting off him. Naruto couldn't help notice the specks of dirt get thrown into the air, the blades of grass pushed to the side, as if trying they were being pushed away by some sort of invisible force.

"Woah…" That was the only word he could think of that could describe what he was seeing. This was chakra? More importantly his father's chakra? It felt powerful. _Really_ powerful.

And with that thought, Minato quickly stopped what he was doing and the blue hue disappeared as quickly as it appeared. He let his arms drop to the side and opened his eyes, "Alright, you try it."

Naruto nodded and closed his eyes. He could feel his hands slightly shaking, he was rather nervous and he didn't want to let his old man down, 'What if my chakra doesn't feel as strong as Tou-san's?' The blonde thought as he dug deep into himself. That thought was among one of many that were similar in meaning.

Naruto didn't know how long he had been doing it and was about to give up before feeling a something deep within himself. A well of energy, he thought it felt rather big and wondered if this was the usual with anyone trying to access their chakra, 'No time to think about that.' He thought, 'Focus on it...and pull!'

Minato let a prideful smirk come across his face when he felt a burst of energy emanating from Naruto. Even though he was expecting it, he couldn't help but be slightly awed when he saw his chakra have an impact on his physical surroundings, 'Either that's the Kyuubi or his natural Uzumaki heritage rearing its head.' He mused, 'Or maybe a combination of both.' The thought of that wondered what that meant for Naruto in the future. He definitely was going to have chakra reserves that definitely rivalled biju in the future. He was sure of that.

"Okay Naruto, you can stop." Minato told the boy.

Naruto let his hands drop to his side and opened his eyes, "Did I do good?"

Minato nodded, "You did extremely well. I'm proud of you." Heck, he would be proud of the boy no matter what anyway.

"So what next?" Naruto asked, eager to get onto the next part of his training.

Minato smiled brightly at Naruto, "You do what you just did until it becomes something like second nature accessing your chakra." He saw the displeased look on Naruto's face and ruffled his hair, "Trust me Naruto. Having the ability to access your chakra just like that," He said, emphasizing his point with the snap of his fingers, "Could be the difference between life and death for a ninja."

Naruto frowned slightly before nodding, "I'll get this down dattebayo!" The blonde declared before running off into the corner of the training ground.

Because of this, he missed the incredulous look on his father's face, 'Dattebayo?' He repeated in disbelief, 'He even got the verbal tic?' Now Minato wondered if there was some sort of conspiracy against him. Sure, he liked the fact that Naruto look a lot like him, but he would have liked it just a tiny bit for his personality too.

The village leader came out of his musings when he felt a presence appear behind him, kneeling, "Hokage-sama, you have been summoned."

Minato nodded, "Alright, I'll be right there." The presence behind him disappeared as soon as he received the confirmation that his message had been received. Minato made a motion of his hand an Anbu appeared in front of him with long purple hair, "Look after him and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

The Anbu nodded, "Yes sir."

"Naruto!" Minato called out to his son who stopped what he was doing and looked at his father, "I have to run to the office. Keep working on what I told you to do."

Naruto nodded, "Alright."

With that, Minato vanished in a smokeless shunshin.

XxX

(Hokage Tower - Hokage's Office)

"An alliance?" Minato repeated in his inside voice with a tone of complete disbelief and incredulity, "With Kumo?" He repeated some more as he looked down at the message scroll in front of him. He was currently in his office along with the Konoha council.

Kumo wanted an alliance with them? Something was up. There was no way Kumo wanted an alliance with them. Kumo didn't do alliances. They simply relied on their own strength.

The last time Kumo had anything that resembled an alliance was back in the waning days of the Third Shinobi War. That little 'alliance' ended badly as it resulted in the death of the Sandaime Raikage after he had stopped to hold back an army of 10,000 shinobi.

After that, A, the Yondaime Raikage had simply decided that Kumo didn't need anything like alliances, continuing a tradition of old. Therefore, the fact that Kumo, the very militarised village that believed in their own power was seeking an alliance with Konoha of all villages, was something to be greeted with whole barrels of salt.

Especially considering the relationship and activity of Kumo over the last four years. Minato, among with many of the higher-ups in Konoha had thought that another war was inevitable. Kumo had been challenging Konoha's supremacy as number one hidden village over the past four years. Everything they had done was seemingly in preparation for a war but at least this time, it would be a world wide war since the main fighters would have most compromised of Konoha and Kumo.

Iwagakure was still reeling from losing an entire division of shinobi and then a thousand more shinobi at the hands of Minato himself. Kiri was embroiled in its civil war and wasn't at all interested in the outside world until that little issue had been resolved with. Suna was now an ally of Konoha and them themselves weren't in any sort of condition to fight. They had their own healing to do.

At best, it would be Konoha against Kumo in an all-out slugfest.

It might have been somewhat confident of himself, but he would have rather liked it this way. It meant that they could concentrate on one foe instead of having to have several fronts in different locations.

And victory would have been more likely.

Simply because there was a reason Konoha had always been number one since the days of the start of the Hidden Village system. It was simple really. Konoha had a habit of producing exceptional shinobi generation after generation like it was experiencing some sort of fire sale.

To his knowledge, compared to Kumo, Konoha had more knock-out power than Kumo, the fact that Kumo outnumbered them at a probable 2:1 notwithstanding. It was all about quality instead of quantity.

And Konoha had quality in abundance.

Kumo had the Raikage, Kirabi, one of the perfect jinchuuriki and the jinchuuriki of the Nibi no Bakemono as game changers of a battlefield. He doubted A would involve himself in the front lines unless really necessary and Konoha had an entire clan that had the potential to subdue bijus.

In Konoha's case though...well, nothing really needed to be said. But even then, with a high chance of victory, he didn't want to needless get into another war, it had barely been half a decade since the end of the last one.

He didn't want to start that whole thing all over again. So maybe this alliance they were offering was genuine?

...He wanted to believe that, but he really couldn't. He just knew something was definitely up with this.

Minato leaned back into his chair and let out a sigh, "You don't trust it do you?" Hiruzen asked after a pregnant silence in the room.

Minato nodded, "I don't know why…" He began, trying to explain why he felt uneasy with the whole thing, "But I just don't like it. I get the feeling that Kumo is working some sort of angle here."

"Then simply reply with a refusal to hold talks for an alliance then." Danzo interceded, "If they want war, we would give them one. A war we would win."

Hiruzen shook his head as a weary sigh that showed his age escaped his lips, "Is war your answer to everything Danzo?"

"To this situation, yes." Danzo admitted bluntly, his tone of voice indecipherable, "It's common knowledge to everyone with the correct ranking that Kumo has been meaning to fight us for dominance in the world."

"Maybe so," Minato said with a slow nod of the head, "But this proposal of theirs might actually be legitimate. If it is, we can't let our paranoia guide us in ruining a perfect chance to extend the peace we are currently enjoying."

Danzo snorted, "And what if it isn't?" He asked, "What if this is some way for them to garner our strength and weakness for a fight they clearly want?"

Minato looked straight at Danzo, his cerulean orbs unwavering, "Then we'll simply have to show them why we're considered the strongest." He pulled aside a scroll and wrote a reply to the message he had received from Kumo and rolled it up before throwing it into a corner of the room. The scroll disappeared mid-throw as the Anbu immediately went to give the message to the correct people.

"You do realise you will be inviting Kumo into Konoha?" Homura asked from his place in the room, "Is that a wise thing to do if you don't trust the intentions Kumo has about this alliance treaty?" It was a fair point, why invite someone you clearly didn't trust into your home? You really couldn't trust them not to do anything could you?

"I do." Minato admitted, "That's why we'll increase the Anbu patrols and have extra guards at key locations." But of course the patrols would be alternating so not to give some sort of pattern to anyone who was interested in Anbu patrols.

The sound of Danzo's cane tapping on the ground could be heard as the crippled old man walked towards the door, "Bah," He let out in distaste, "This is going to come back and hurt us." He could feel it in his bones.

Minato couldn't help but agree with the man, "I know." But he had to try and preserve the peace that so many people had died for. Was that too much to ask for?

XxX

"You handled that quite well." Hiruzen said as he smoked his pipe as he stared out on the village atop the roof of the tower, "I believe I would have done the very same thing if I was in your shoes."

"Thank you Hiruzen-san." Minato said as he let out a sigh, "You have no idea how much that means to me." It meant a lot for him to hear that from the man who had taught his sensei. If anything, Hiruzen was as powerful as he was wise. He was something of a voice of calm and wisdom when things got far too turbulent.

What? Was it too much of him to have something of a mentor for someone in his position? Yes, he was powerful, fit enough to hold the title of Hokage. He was also knowledgeable and wise enough for that role.

But he had no experience whatsoever in running an entire military organisation from the top. He was used to commanding squads, platoons, that sort of thing. Sometimes, it got overwhelming when he would realise he had power of tens of thousands of people trained to kill.

How did anyone never go power mad from that?

"Don't let it get to you." Hiruzen said, letting a plume of smoke escape his lips, "I was rather taken aback to when I became Hokage." And he had been around the same age as Minato when the Nidaime thought fit to name him Hokage right in middle of a mission. Fun times.

Minato simply nodded his head, "I'll have to take your word for that."

"Hokage-sama." An Anbu announced himself as he appeared behind the current and former Hokage, "I have something to report."

Minato turned to face the ninja, "Go on."

"In the last month, we've had seven disappearances." The Anbu reported as he continued to kneel, "Both were either civilians or ninja."

Minato and Hiruzen frowned at that. Even though it had been four years in, they were still no closer into figuring out who was kidnapping the people of the village, "Okay…" Minato said slowly, "I want three extra Anbu patrols in the village. Set it so that your patrol routes have no pattern and jump from district to district with no set pattern or frequency." Whoever was kidnapping these people clearly knew how the patrols of the village worked. The majority of the reports came from places that the patrols of the Anbu and Military Police Force overlap.

Places were both organisations most often overlooked due to a preconceived notion the other organisation had it handled.

The Anbu gave a stiff nod, "Hai."

The Anbu vanished as he left to carry out his orders. Minato leaned on the guardrails on top of the Hokage Tower and looked up to the sky, "First the Kumo proposal now this…" He turned to look at the Sandaime, "...When did your hair start going grey again?"

Hiruzen laughed, "I believe it was a few years into the job."

"...Is it still to early for me to look for a replacement?" Minato half-joked. He rather liked his shockingly bright, blonde hair. And he was sure if his hair went gray in his twenties, Naruto would never let him hear the end of it.

"Yes, yes it is." He had to wait until he was nearing fifty for a suitable replacement to turn up. There was no way he was letting him get out of this one only a few years into the job.

XxX

(Uchiha Compound)

Uchiha Itachi had come back to his home after his day with his team to a rather amusing sight. His younger sibling was in the training ground, nothing unusual about that. Young Sasuke might as well have started calling that piece of land home with the amount of time he spent there.

What was amusing to Itachi was that Sasuke was currently laying into one of the training dummies muttering something about 'Blonde dobes.' or somewhere along them lines.

A rustling of leaves and the slight shifting of the branch he was standing on alerted Itachi to another observer, "Yo Itachi, whatcha doing?" The new person said before looking into the training ground and its sole inhabitant, "Stalking your little brother again? That's really creepy."

Itachi sighed, "I'm not stalking him." The young Uchiha genius said as he turned to look at the new arrival, "I only came to check up on him. Did you finish your mission already Shisui?"

Shisui nodded his head, "Yep. I'll tell you man, it's tough being a rookie chunin. I can't wait until you're a chunin and you'll get to share some of my pain."

Shisui was a boy slightly older than Itachi. He had short, unkempt hair and defined eyelashes. He wore a dark-coloured, high-collared attire with a leather harness that held his tanto over the right side of his back.

"You've been a chunin for a year." Itachi stated in his usual tone of voice, "I doubt you can be called rookie with that."

Shisui just smirked playfully at him, "Well, it's still tough you know?" He turned his attention back down to Sasuke who was continuing to lay a beat down into the training dummy, "He's going to hurt himself if you don't stop him you know?"

Itachi let out a sigh, "Sasuke-kun will eventually have to learn to not train himself recklessly into the ground." He said rather succinctly, "I can't always be there to tell him to stop."

"Oh~" Shisui let out, "That's some tough love. Oh well, I'm going to go say hi to the little munchkin." He finished off as he jumped down to the ground below.

Itachi watched his friend make his way towards his younger brother before silently dropping down to the ground. He might as well greet his brother and see if he would be able to pry out any information on this 'Blonde dobe' he was muttering about.

XxX

(Konohagakure no Sato - Somewhere)

"You're beginning to attract a lot of attention with your targets Orochimaru." Danzo said as he made his way into a darkened room that was only lighted up by several strategically placed candles.

Orochimaru, a tall man with pale skin and waist length black hair merely let out an amused chuckle as he continued to work on the specimen in front of him, "Haven't I been attracting attention ever since we started our little partnership Danzo-san?"

"Maybe so." Danzo grunted as he came to a halt beside the man, "So how long is it until you are done?"

"Not long." The snake-like man said with a hum to his answer.

"A more definite answer would do." The longer he waited, the more likely that Orochimaru's activities would be found out. Even though they were for the greater good of Konoha, not many would see at as that. Therefore as soon as Orochimaru had lived his use, he would cut of all connections.

Orochimaru chuckled as a wry grin came across his face, "Maybe in the next month or so. Little Kinoe-kun has been very useful to balancing out the Shodai's cells." He cast a glance towards the crippled elder, "If you didn't understand, that means you won't turn into a giant tree when I implant them into you."

Danzo didn't rise to the insult on his intelligence, "That's acceptable." He merely stated as he turned around and made for the exit.

Orochimaru continued working even with the backdrop of Danzo's cane hitting the ground. Before Danzo could leave the laboratory, the snake Sannin called out to him, "If you don't mind me asking," He began, "But why do you need the power of the Shodai and the Uchiha anyway?" He was rather interested in what use the old warhawk would have in that set of abilities.

Danzo stopped inbetween the door, "You might say," Danzo began as he felt out the words to word his statement correctly, "To make Konoha flourish." And with that, he left.

Orochimaru just chuckled, "That didn't answer my question though…" Not that he needed to hear it come from the man. He could make a guess as to why Danzo wanted these two particular powers for himself.

But then again, he doubted the man would even get close enough to his object of desire to enact whatever machinations he had in mind. Parents were rather protective of their children.

Especially parents with the ability to defeat a thousand men in the blink of an eye.

XxX

(Namikaze Home)

The first thing that Minato had done when he had arrived back at his home was facepalm for his lack of foresight into his son's training. It should have come obvious to him that Naruto would more than easily be able to access his chakra easier than anybody else.

Hell, from just his unlocking of his chakra, it was rather obvious the young boy had more chakra than most people several years his elders. Therefore, it was much easier for him to get a feel of his chakra and be able to call upon it. Even though he couldn't call upon like reflex like most ninjas do, Minato would be quite positive in believing that he could call upon it better than anyone else his age group at the moment who was receiving shinobi training.

"So what's next?" The small, blonde bumble bee of energy asked as he literally hopped on the balls of his feet. He was far too excited to just stay still, he quickly wanted to get on with his training. Since he couldn't go to the Academy, this was the next best alternative.

And this alternative was simply too awesome and incredible for words. Who his age could say they were being personally tutored by the Yondaime Hokage?

Minato scratched his cheek in thought, "Well, I since you already know one of the hand signs, I might as well teach you the rest."

"Hand signs?" Naruto repeated with interest.

"Hm." Minato nodded as he began to slowly go through the hand signs, "Hand signs are used by every ninja to perform various jutsu except for taijutsu. There are twelve basic hand signs which are Saru (Monkey), Tatsu (Dragon), Ne (Rat), Tori (Bird), Mi (Snake), Ushi (Ox), Inu (Dog), Uma (Horse), Tora (Tiger), I (Boar), Hitsuji (Ram), U (Hare)." He said and with each hand sign he uttered, he showed it to Naruto and held it for as long as possible for the young boy to memorize as best as he could, "And then there are other hand signs for other ninjutsu. But those are mainly used for clan or secret jutsus." He added as he let his hands drop, "So can you guess what you're going to have to do next?"

"Learn how to do the hand signs?" Naruto said at a tentatively slow pace.

Minato smiled and ruffled Naruto's hair, "Yeah, exactly that." A pregnant silence filled the room they were in, "...Want me to show you them again?" He had to wait a while before Naruto slowly nodded his head again, "I thought as much."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Well, slow build-up as expected as I'm planning on covering important points throughout the story, but expect some action in future chapters. <strong>

**Leave a review!**

**Raiden out.**


	3. Tribulations of Leadership

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto! I really wish I did though. Cause that would be just amazing.**

* * *

><p><span><strong>Chapter 3 - The Tribulations of Leadership<strong>

Word had quickly spread throughout Konoha of the impending peace and alliance talks between Konoha and Kumo. And not surprising after having just recently gone through a war, the people were in a buoyant mood.

Not that anyone could blame them. The scars from the previous war were still fresh in the people's minds. Made even worse by the fact that when they had thought they wouldn't suffer anymore, the Kyuubi attack occurred several months after the war, adding to the misery of the villagers.

It was only a small number of people that truly doubted the sincerity of the peace talks that Kumo was proposing. But even so, these few also wished that the proposal was real and not some sort of stunt by Kumo.

The twenty-something old Hokage of Konoha though not only had to worry about the talks, he also had other troubles to think about. Such as the continuing disappearances of Konoha villagers and shinobi alike.

And whoever had been abducting them had previously been abducting people that didn't belong to any clan but had suddenly decided to move up in the world. Which brought this meeting Minato was in with the clan head of the clan that the abductor or abductors have taken a special interest in.

"Like I have said before Fugaku," Minato said as he looked across his desk towards the dark-haired Uchiha patriarch, "I've put every resource I could gather into finding out who is responsible for these abductions, including those of your clan members."

Fugaku was a fairly tall man with shoulder length black hair, onyx eyes that was synonymous with the Uchiha clan. He was dressed in the attire of the Konoha Military Police Force of a black long-sleeved shirt, pants with shin guards and black sandals. He wore the standard Konoha flack jacket and an open front apron skirt with a white diamond pattern on the hem.

"Really now?" Fugaku said in a disbelieving tone, "If you had dedicated every resource as you have said. You should have captured whoever this person is by now." He had a point. It had been four years since the very first abductions and they still had nothing on whoever was carrying them out. There was simply no pattern or correlation into the victims of the abductions. The only pattern they had come to a conclusion was that the abductor had no interest in the elderly, but other than that, everyone else was fair game, "For all we know, these abductions could merely be a front by the village to abduct Uchiha members with Sharingans."

Minato frowned slightly. Of course it would come to this. Talking about a problem that the whole village was facing and it would have somehow ended up back to the perceived mistrust the village had for the Uchiha clan, when it wasn't. Well, sort of anyway.

Wait a second, did he just say Sharingans? That was oddly...specific, "What do you mean Sharingans?" This was new to him. Since the very first Uchiha abduction, there was nothing on their file that stated anything about the Sharingan. Which was weird...activating their vaunted doujutsu was something to be celebrated for in their clan. And that meant that the fact this person with the doujutsu who had been kidnapped had it was a cause of concern.

The fact that it wasn't in the file meant it was to hide something. And they were wondering why the majority of the village wasn't too trusting of them? It was for reasons such as this.

Fugaku managed to stop himself from cursing out at that slip of the tongue, "From what we've come to learn, out of the seven Uchiha's who had been abducted, four of them had activated their Sharingans."

Minato's face took on a serious countenance as he looked at Fugaku, "And I'm only starting to learn of this why?" You just couldn't hide stuff like this. The Sharingan was a very big deal. That eye could turn a below-mediocre shinobi into a pretty damn decent one.

Fugaku grunted, "Because we've just learned this ourselves." That was sort of true. Just because you activated your Sharingan didn't mean you announced it to the world. There was a small amount of Uchiha ninjas in their clan who kept that particular detail to themselves for various reasons, to only reveal it as a trump card or until they had fully mastered it.

Hell, the only reason Fugaku knew that of the Uchiha's abducted had activated their Sharingan was because of their family members.

Minato continued to look at Fugaku trying to detect any sort of lying from the man. He couldn't sense any sort of the type from the man, but the fact that he didn't report this immediately when they had learned did put some suspicion.

Deciding to not take this to the man, Minato collected himself and decided to think things through. Seven Uchihas had been abducted, four of them had their doujutsu activated. With this, it was safe to assume that the kidnapper wants the clan members for the doujutsu they held. But they didn't know who in the clan had activated the doujutsu. The Uchiha mostly kept that to themselves unless a member of the clan revealed it whilst on a mission.

With this, Minato made a note to have his investigation squad go through all known Uchiha members who had revealed their Sharingan to those who have been abducted. If things panned out well, it would mean whoever was doing these abductions had access to a file only very few people had access too.

'But that still doesn't explain the other Uchiha,' Minato thought before a thought hit him, 'Maybe the other one's were just decoys?' Well, he would follow that train of thought later until he had more data to go with but for now, he had to settle this meeting, "We're doing everything we can to find out about these abductions Fugaku." And to throw in an olive branch of sorts, "If you want proof, you can sent me a list of your most capable officers to me and I'll have them join the squad that handling this matter. Would that be satisfactory for you?" If it wasn't, he didn't know what could be.

Fugaku sat in his seat for several seconds seemingly in thought before nodding, "That is fine." He got up from his seat, "You'll have a list on your desk tomorrow morning." By doing this and involving themselves even more in this case, maybe his clan could be perceived in a more positive light by the rest of the village, especially if an Uchiha managed to find the person responsible and bring them to justice.

"Heh." Minato let out a sigh as he relaxed in his chair and leaned back, "This job is going to be the death of me." And with that thought, his eyes trailed to the side of his desk where he saw a stack of papers just waiting for him to read through, sign and stamp. Yeah...this job looked so much better when he was a child. He could imagine it being more fun than this, "Back into the grind I guess." He muttered as he pulled out one of the papers and began reading it.

A knock on his door attracted his attention before he had read the first chapter, "Come in."

The door opened to reveal one of the chunins stationed in the administration department coming through the door holding a large pile of papers in his hands, "Sorry for intruding Hokage-sama, but we have more forms that need your attention."

Minato just watched with a blank expression as the chunin placed the pile next to the one he already had before saluting him and leaving. Minato looked at the increased stack of papers and shook his head, "I can't wait till I find my successor." He mused as he returned to his task.

XxX

"Kakashi!"

The masked ninja came to a halt as he turned his head to see who had called out to him, "Oh Kurenai, Genma and...Gai," He said as he turned to walk towards the group of ninjas from his generation who were situated inside a tea shop, "What's up?"

Genma rolled the senbon in his mouth from one side of his lips to the other, "Nothing much." He casually replied as he leaned back in his seat, "Just catching up."

Genma was a few years older than Kakashi and had long-brown hair covered by his forehead protector that he wore like a bandana and brown eyes. He wore the standard attire of a Konoha shinobi.

Kakashi took a free seat behind the casual ninja and looked around, "Hmm…" He hummed, "Where's Asuma?"

Kurenai raised a delicate eyebrow eyebrow, "Don't you know?"

"Don't I know what?" Kakashi asked as he made an order and took his time to relax in his seat.

Instead of Kurenai asking, it was Kakashi's over-enthusiastic and full-on 'eternal' rival Gai who answered, "Asuma has gone off and joined the Guardian Ninja!" He declared with a fist pump. Why he was so energetic was a mystery to everyone who knew him.

"Really now?" Kakashi drawled out with the same lazy appearance on his visible..eye, "Good for him."

Genma chuckled from beside him, "He's been with the Guardians for the past two years Kakashi…" He let an amused smirk come across his lips as he looked at the masked ninja, "You actually didn't notice him gone over that period of time."

"Actually, no." Kakashi admitted, "I've been rather busy."

Kurenai rolled his eyes, "Yeah, we know. Anbu 'stuff'." She said with air quotation marks around the word 'stuff', "But we all know the stuff you do only involves guarding little Naruto. That's not very cloak and dagger stuff." It was more along the lines of being a glorified babysitter.

Kakashi looked at her with his usual placid expression, "You don realise that apart from me, there's like other guys who do that right? And there's no difference between that and a simple protection mission." He shook his head as he pushed away his plate, which had somehow been cleaned of the food items that was on it, "And weren't we talking about Asuma?"

Genma nodded, "We were. And that somehow lead to your Anbu missions." He then blinked in realisation, "Speaking of which, how does Kurenai know you guard the Yondaime's son?"

Kakashi sighed as Kurenai answered, "I used to babysit him a while back. The Yondaime thought it would be nice of him to let Kakashi amuse me whenever he was guarding him." She sighed, "But back then, Kakashi was about as conversational as a brick wall."

"A very _cool_ brick wall." Kakashi chimed in. And having had enough of being made fun off, he decided to turn the tables, "And I wouldn't speak of Minato-sensei so fondly like that. What would Asuma think?"

Kurenai splattered as the others laughed before she narrowed her eyes at Kakashi, "And what exactly do you mean by that Kakashi?"

"Oh nothing." The masked Anbu waved off, "My mouth was just chatting pointless stuff."

She crossed her arms, "It better have been. Nothing is going on between me and Asuma."

The three other male ninja didn't think so as they struggled to contain their amusement on the statement, "If you say so." Genma mused as he relaxed some more.

Kurenai just looked at them with a displeased expression, "You guys suck."

XxX

"Did anyone ever tell you that you're really strong for your age Itachi?" Shisui asked as he sat in the shade of a tree, beads of sweat on his face from the rather intense spar he had with said boy, "I mean, people say I'm pretty good, but you make me really worry sometimes."

Itachi sat next to him, but unlike Shisui, he didn't lean on the tree and merely sat straight up, "I have to be as strong as I can be for the clan and the village."

Shisui blinked at him a few times before letting out a good-natured laugh, "That's some pretty mature thinking. I would have figured you would have a goal like along the lines of becoming the strongest in the world or something like that." Itachi just turned to look at him with the same stoic expression he always carried. Shisui just grinned uneasily before speaking, "Okay, okay, I was joking."

Itachi let a small victorious smile come across his lips before turning to look back at the field as the sun set into the distance, bathing the area in an orange glow, "This is a rather scenic scene." He mused offhandedly. It was at times like this that put things into perspective.

"Yeah…" Shisui agreed with a slow nod of the head, "It would be nice if it could last forever."

"I think I like my sleep."

Shisui rolled his eyes, "You know what I mean. Don't make jokes. Your jokes and sense of humour is just horrible."

"As if yours is any better."

"I will have you know, people actually consider me a rather affable guy and the life of the party."

A pleasant silence enveloped the two young Uchiha members as they simply let their bodies rest after the intense training session they had subjected themselves too for the last few hours.

It would have lasted longer if it wasn't for Shisui, "Question, are you and your team taking the Chunin Exams this year?" From what he had already seen, Itachi was strong enough to be a Chunin and anyone could tell you that he already had the mentality of a leader about him. Even if he didn't speak much.

The younger Uchiha merely let out a shrug for his answer, "It depends if our sensei thinks we're ready for them."

"_You_ are ready for them." Shisui stressed, not really seeing what Itachi was trying to say.

"Maybe so." Itachi admitted. He knew of his skill and what he was capable of. There was no denying that, "But the same cannot be said about my teammates. They have come along nicely but I still think we wouldn't be ready for the Exams." Maybe in another year or so, his team would be ready. But for now, he was just content with staying a genin.

:A genin who went on more C and B-rank missions with his team than D-ranks." Shisui deadpanned. He then shook his head in amusement, "For that simple fact along, you guys should be in the Chunin Exams. You have the experience and you've all come back from missions that Chunins takes."

"We actually take more C-ranks than B and D-ranks actually." Itachi corrected, "That doesn't mean we're ready though. The C-ranks we have taken don't involve much fighting." Missions were immediately deigned C-ranks if they took outside the village. And even then, combat wasn't always assured. Due to this uncertainty, missions that were more certain of seeing combat or were of particular importance could be placed as B-rank or higher.

"Still got the experience."

Shisui didn't see why his sensei just entered his team into the Chunin Exams. Hell, his sensei had done it when he had only been a genin for a year. Itachi was close to being a genin for three years and still hadn't taken the exam. Not even once.

Itachi sighed, "Maybe so, but that decision is still left to my sensei, not me."

And with that, another silence enveloped the two shinobi. Itachi had shifted himself into a meditative position and was seemingly meditating whilst Shisui laid against the tree, with his eyes closed taking a nap.

He was sociable, but he himself liked quiet moments like this. Where he could simply relax and enjoy himself.

"Itachi…"

"Yeah…" The younger Uchiha said as he slowly opened his eyes, "I've noticed."

The moment Itachi had uttered that last sentence, the area the two Uchiha's were resting in was peppered with shuriken, hitting the two boys straight.

Not long afterwards, a group of five shinobi dressed in black cloaks and wearing masks revealed themselves, "Targets acquired." The one in the lead said, "Check to see if their eyes are damaged."

Two of the group nodded and walked towards the unmoving bodies of the two Uchiha. One of them kneeled down beside Itachi's body and moved him only for his eyes to widen behind the mask, "Get away!" He yelled out in alarm, doing just that before an explosion, originating from Itachi's body rocked the area.

The three shinobi who had stayed back and the one who had yelled out the alarm had managed to evade the explosion without any damage, but that wasn't the same for the one that went to check on Shisui's body.

"By what you said about our eyes," Shisui's voice rang throughout the area, "I take it you're the people responsible for all the Uchiha abductions?" And if that was true, then they were also responsible for the other abductions, "Who are you and why have you been abducting Uchiha and the others?"

The masked men simply didn't answer and pulled out kunais, ready for a fight.

"I don't think they're going to answer." Itachi said as he appeared from the shadow of a tree, his eyes glowing red as his activated Sharingan spun.

Shisui appeared from the other side of the masked group, "Really? What brought that on?" He asked sarcastically, "Was it the fact that they didn't answer to my question?"

"Yes." Itachi answered, "It was pointless of you to even ask." People didn't just tell you what their plans were if you simply asked them out of the blue. They had to be given a little 'persuasion' first before they decided to say anything.

"Whatever." Shisui said as he pulled out his tanto, "Let's just capture these guys and bring them to the authorities. I'm sure people there's a lot of people who want to have words with them."

The group of four split into two, two to face off against Itachi and the other to face off against Shisui, "Capture them. Don't damage the eyes." With that utterance from the leader, they shot off at their assigned targets.

"As if it'll be that easy!" Shisui shouted as he jumped back to make some space and swung his sword, "Uchiha-ryu: Sanshoo no Shita (Uchiha Style: Salamander's Tongue)!"

Shisui coated his tanto in flames before stabbing it forward where a tongue of flame shot out towards the two advancing ninja. The two ninja separated to avoid the attack. Shisui smirked before swinging his sword in the direction of one of the ninja where the tongue of flame followed and managed to set on fire one of the ninja.

"One down, one more to go." Shisui remarked as he cancelled his jutsu to bring his sword up to block a kunai strike from the remaining ninja. Being obviously smaller and younger, Shisui found himself losing in a battle of strength and decided to disengage himself from the clash, "Alright, not doing that again…" He muttered before exchanging blade strikes with his opponent.

XxX

(With Itachi)

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu)!"

A fireball shot out of Itachi's lips and sped towards the two ninjas. Instead of separating both went through hand seals, "Suiton: Suijinheki (Water Release: Water Formation Wall)! A large volume of water was spit out by the ninjas that formed a defensive wall in front of them.

The two jutsus collided and the area was encased in steam as the result. The two attackers burst through the steam into Itachi's last position with kunai's drawn only to find that the Uchiha had removed himself from the area.

They looked around for any signs of the young shinobi before their trained ears picked up on the signs of metal slicing through the air. One of the ninja jumped away to avoid the shuriken whilst the other turned around and deflected the shuriken with his kunai.

A thud coming from behind him forced the cloaked man to turn around and see his partner falling to the ground, unmoving, "Strange." Itachi's voice rang out, "You don't seem to care about the well being of your comrade."

If Itachi was expecting some sort of reply to his statement, he didn't get one as the attacker kept his mouth closed as he continued to look around his surroundings for the young man. The slight rustling of leaves attracted his attention and he swift turned around to block a kunai slash from Itachi, "And now it's over. You looked into my eyes." The young Uchiha coolly said as the man simply slumped to the ground unmoving, "I wonder if Shisui is done."

"Yep!" Said ninja's voice called out as he walked into the area Itachi inhabited. Itachi turned his head to see Shisui struggling to pull one of his attackers with him, "What should we do now?"

Itachi looked around, "One of us should stay here whilst the other one goes to get the authorities." He then looked down at his captured opponents still stuck in his genjutsu, "Since you're the fastest, you should go."

Shisui nodded, "Keep yourself hidden just in case they get over your genjutsu." He said as he brought up a hand and did the half ram seal and vanished in a Shunshin.

Itachi sighed as he closed his eyes, "At least with this, we can at least begin to learn who is behind this." He muttered as he jumped onto an overhanging branch to look down at the captives. Get over his genjutsu? Who did Shisui think he was? If they did get over his genjutsu, they would be too weak and disoriented to do anything, giving ample time to cast another genjutsu on them.

XxX

(ANBU Detention & Interrogation Cells)

Amazing.

They finally made a breakthrough with the abductions. The kidnappers had tried to make a play on two young Uchiha. And unfortunately for them, their play didn't work-out simply because of who those two Uchiha were.

Thank Kami for making Uchiha Shisui and Itachi as brilliant as they were. At least by the time the Kumo representative had arrived, they would have solved one of the village's pains in the back.

"So do we know who they are?" Minato asked as he walked alongside one of his old classmates back in the academy, Yamanaka Inoichi.

Inoichi had dirty long blonde hair that reached his waist and that was spiky on the top, blue green eyes and strong facial features. He wore the standard Konoha flak jacket with a black outfit complete with a headband, hand-guards and red sleeveless haori.

The interrogator shook his head, "No. They don't have any sort of identifications on them." He said as they walked along a grey coloured corridor towards their destination, "And they aren't listed in any sort of Bingo Book."

Minato frowned at that piece of news before sighing, "I'm going to take a leap in the dark and guess they are grunts of some sort."

Inoichi smirked ruefully, "Funny, I was thinking the same thing." This disappearances had been happening for four years, that meant some sort of mastermind. And masterminds rarely showed themselves to the masses unless truly necessary, "But until I take a look inside their mind, I can't really say." Even though his money was on them being grunts nonetheless.

As the two shinobi walked towards their destination, they noticed a lot of movement, "Wait, isn't this…?" Minato began as he noticed the room the activity was based around was the interrogation room they were heading towards. He immediately sprang into action and before anyone could notice, he had entered into the room that held one of the abductors.

What he came across was the sight of one of the kidnappers frothing at the mouth with his eyes rolled into the back of his head as seal markings spread across his head. Minato quickly took in all the seals he could see but before he could act, the man went limp and unmoving.

Inoichi soon joined Minato in the room and came across the scene of one of the Anbu medics try to resuscitate the captive, "What happened?"

Minato frowned, "We just lost our leads that what happened." He wouldn't be surprised if their other captives suffered a similar fate, "Hato, you can stop." He ordered the medic Anbu who complied, "Whoever he was, we won't learn a thing from him now or the others probably."

Inoichi didn't like the sound of that, "How come?"

"Whoever this person was," Minato began, "He has been thoroughly lobotomized. Whatever we wanted to learn from his mind has been thoroughly wiped out." Yeah, none of the people the two Uchiha's had brought in were the leadership in this. These were just disposable pawns for whoever is in judge.

The blonde Kage turned around and made for the exit, "Even though we can't learn anything from their minds now, we might still be able to learn something from their bodies." One of the reasons why hunter-nin destroyed bodies of missing-nin right then and there.

"Yondaime-sama!"

Minato turned around when he had someone calling out to him to see even more seals appear on the kidnapper. His eyes widened when he recognised the seals and he prayed that he was fast enough.

XxX

(Konohagakure no Sato - Orochimaru's Lab)

The snake Sannin sat on a stool in his lab going over his research data before looking up from the stacks of paper, "Huh...:" He let out an amused chuckle, "It seems the pawns Danzo lend me got found out."

Oh well, it didn't matter to him. The old warhawk had placed some rather...nasty seals on his agents to keep and maintain his secrecy. Of course Orochimaru had added his own to the one's Danzo had placed under his command, "I hope they like the surprise," He chuckled out in a sickly sweet tone, "It should prove to be a ...bang." He chuckled some more before going back to his work.

XxX

(ANBU Detention & Interrogation Cells)

Out of the four subordinates he had in that room, he had been fast enough to only get himself to three of those people. Minato could now say whoever was behind this now had his ire. In fact, this whole mystery was starting to get his complete and utter ire.

When he found who the mastermind behind these abductions was, he was going to handle them personally.

"Everybody alright?" Minato asked as he got himself up and surveyed the destruction caused by the self-destruct seal placed on the prisoner they had brought in. He was rather glad that places such as these were built to last and thus the damage had only been minimized to the room itself. Of course that wasn't counting the three other prisoners.

Who knew how many lives their sudden explosion took? Yeah, this was now personal.

"Yes Hokage-sama." An Anbu said as they slowly got to their feet, trying to get their heads together after the sudden movement, "Thank you sir."

"Don't worry about it." He glanced down to Inoichi who was also getting himself together, "What about you Inoichi?"

"I'll be fine." The man replied with a wave of the hand before standing up fully, "But don't ever do that again. I feel like hurling my lunch out."

Minato raised an eyebrow in amusement, "Even though it may result in me saving your life?" He asked as other agents came out to put-out the fire and survey the damage caused by the explosions.

"...Well, I'll give you a pass this time." Inoichi half-joked before sighing. He ran a hand through his hair, "So what does this mean?" Their leads had been rendered brain dead and then when they thought they could learn something from their bodies, they blew up, "I guess we're back at square one again huh?" He answered his own question with another question.

"Not really…" Minato said lowly causing Inoichi to turn to look at him. He was about to question what his commander-in-chief meant before Minato turned around and continued speaking, "We might not be back to square one after all." He said as he made his way towards the exit.

"And you would know this why?"

"The seals." Was all that the famed Yellow Flash answered with. Reason being that he recognised that particular of seals from somewhere. Just like how a skilled artist would be able to tell the difference between two sets of paintings that were exactly the same but done by different artists, the same rule applied to seals. It was all a matter of trying to remember who used that particular style with their seals.

It had been a mistake for whoever planted them to leave their personal nuances in the seals right in front of someone who had been taught in the art by someone from a clan renowned for the obscure ninja art.

Heh, this might not have been a disaster after all.

XxX

(A Week Later)

Kumo had been quick to reply to the message that accepted the proposals and would soon send out of their higher-ups as an envoy for the talks to proceed. That envoy was soon slated to arrive later this day.

Knowledge had spread out amongst the villagers that another war had soon been averted and coupled along with news of Kumo's delegation soon arriving, a lavish street parade had been created. The parade lined from the main entrance of the village and led down the road that went all the way to the Hokage Tower were the talks would be taking place.

Whilst the villagers and many others viewed these peace talks as something to celebrate over, the higher-ups took these proceedings with a hint of salt, well, maybe large barrels of salt. It was simply among a trait of being a ninja village to not trust others so simply, especially villages with a track record like Kumogakure's.

Sitting in his office, Minato listened to the deployment of various Anbu at key locations in the village just in case there was more to these peace talks, "...And finally we have five squads over-looking the Cryptanalysis Division HQ and along with one squad each on any of the high-ranking members of the division." The masked Anbu commander informed him.

Minato nodded his head, "That's sufficient." He said before making an addendum to the deployment of the elite division, "Keep several squads in reserve ready to react to any incident."

The Anbu commander nodded, "Yes Hokage-sama."

A motion of the hand told the Anbu that he was dismissed and quickly vanished in a shunshin that didn't leave any trace of his being in the room. That was to be expected from the top Anbu in the village. That particular division only recruited the best of the best.

"Those are some pretty stringent security measures their Minato."

Minato leaned back into his chair, having sensed the presence of the other ninja as soon as his Anbu had left the room, "Can't be helped. I'm sure every village does something similar during diplomatic talks that occur in their own village." It was within a shinobi's nature to be trustful of other shinobi, especially other shinobi that came from a rival village. His blue eyes glanced at his sensei who was taking a seat on the window sill, "So did you learn anything?"

Jiraiya gave a shake of the head, "Nothing. There was nothing on the grapevine about any of this being a shady deal on Kumo's part." He removed himself from his place of seating to take a walk towards the opposite wall that adorned the pictures of the previous and current Hokage, "I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but this might actually be a genuine attempt from Kumo on making peace."

"The Nidaime thought so and look how that ended out."

"That was different," Jiraiya said as he looked at the picture of the white haired, water-using Hokage, "He was simply caught in a coup d'etat caused by some very powerful fellows." The Gold and Silver Brothers were monstrously powerful people back in their time. They had to be. They survived for days inside the Kyuubi's stomach after being eaten.

That just wasn't normal.

"Maybe so," Minato admitted. There was no point in comparing that incident with this scenario, those were two completely different things. It wasn't like he would have to face a coup d'etat himself during these talks. And the scenario was different this time anyway. It wasn't A coming here to personally sign the treaty, it was his Head Shinobi, "But I can't just ignore the feeling that I have can I?" Ignoring one's instincts as a shinobi was a good way to get yourself killed. Most of the time, those instincts were right on the money.

Jiraiya chuckled rather wryly, "No you can't. Instincts are a shinobi's best friend." He turned to face the blonde Hokage, "Let's just hope Kumo aren't planning to do anything...unsavoury." A was different from his father the Sandaime Raikage. He was more like a warrior than a ninja, but then again, it would be foolhardy to place the notion that simply because he acted like a warrior, he didn't think like a ninja.

And who was to say he didn't pick-up his father's penchant for trying to strengthen Kumo by doing unsavoury deeds?

XxX

(Nara Compound)

"I don't get it Shika," Naruto began as he looked down at the game board between himself and his friend Shikamaru, "How is this fun?"

The young Nara sighed from the other side of the board. His blonde friend had asked the very same question several times already ever since he began coming to his house to play, "It's fun because it makes you think."

Naruto grimaced at the thought, why would he want to think? He wasn't stupid by any stretch of the imagination, but it wasn't like he liked to use the thing inside his head all of the time for more complicated thoughts than who he was going to mess with today, "That doesn't sound like fun at all."

Shikamaru's lips twitched in amusement, "That's because you're dumb."

"No I'm not!" Naruto defended wholeheartedly. He wasn't dumb, he just did stupid things on occasion, that didn't mean he was dumb, "Chouji's dumb!" He then blinked before turning his head to face his bigger friend who sat at the side snacking on a packet of chips, "No offence Chouji."

The young Akimichi merely shook his head, "None taken Naruto." Wow, Chouji must have been some sort of saint. Naruto knew if that had been himself being called dumb, he would be raising all sorts of hell over that statement. Probably kicking ass whilst he was at it, "Oh it's your turn." He informed Naruto as he indicated with a nod of the head towards the board.

Naruto blinked before turning his attention back to the game at hand. He noted that Shikamaru had moved one of his pieces and Naruto returned in kind and moved one of his own.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow before looking at Naruto with his usual lazy look, "Do you even think about the moves you make?" He asked with a rather dry look on his face.

"I barely even understand the rules or remember the names of the pieces." Naruto deadpanned in return. Shogi just wasn't his thing. Especially the need to sit down to play. He was a man of action and he needed to be moving in some sort of manner.

Shikamaru just looked at him, "You're so troublesome." Really, why was it always so difficult playing against Naruto in this game? He had no strategy, tactics anything of the sorts yet he always managed to force him to change one of his plans with every single, seemingly random move he made, 'Troublesome blonde idiot.' He groused mentally. At least he wasn't as troublesome or as bossy as the other blonde in his life.

"Hey guys," Chouji chimed in from the side, "Are you going to that parade that's happening in the village?" He asked. It seemed like fun. There was even going to be some sort of festival happening afterwards.

Shikamaru would have shook his head in the negative manner but found it too troublesome to do, "No, too far away." Hey, his clan compound was located in the forested outskirts of the village to house all that deer they looked after. Walking all the way to the village was way too much of a hassle for him.

"You're so lazy Shika." Naruto reprimanded, even though his heart wasn't into it, "I'm going. It seems like fun. Tou-san said there was even a festival or something happening afterwards." He didn't know any of the more important details, but apparently, whoever was coming to the village was someone of a big deal.

Shikamaru shrugged, "Whether it's fun or not. I'm not going." He moved his king on the board and looked up at Naruto, eyes lidded and all, "You're in check."

Naruto looked at the board and squinted his eyes in thought before sighing and leaning back, propping himself up with his hands, "You win. Again." He might not have liked the game that all much, but he would have at least liked to win every now and then. It would also have been fantastic to knock that stupid victorious look of Shikamaru's face just once, "This game is so stupid."

"That's because you're stupid."

"Not this again…"

All Chouji could do was chuckle as his two friends started bickering again over nothing again. He sure knew how to pick them.

XxX

(Later That Day - Hokage Tower)

The sounds of celebration could be heard from outside the Hokage Tower. The noise got to a level where it was required that the talks would be held in a more soundproof area due to the simple fact that the inside voices of the Shinobi Gashira of Kumo and Minato's had to be increased to be able to hear each other perfectly.

The moment that their scouts and sensors had picked up the Kumo contingent as they entered their country, he didn't know how long, but after news of Kumo's imminent arrival reached Minato's ears, the villagers already had everything set up for the parade and were already in a party mood by the time the contingent had arrived.

After arriving at the tower, the Shinobi Gashira, a man by the name of Kurasawa Endo, had given a speech about stopping further bloodshed between their two villages, which was met with rapturous applause by many. After that, they had retreated into inside the tower as the villagers turned their attention to the festival as their village leader held talks.

"I'm sorry about the inconvenience of having to relocate rooms in the manner that we had too." Minato apologised as he looked across a table to the grey haired shinobi, "Our villagers tend to get rather rowdy at occasions such as these." He finished off with a light joke.

The joke seemed to work as the Kumo delegate let out a light chuckle, "Oh don't apologise Yondaime-sama. It's understandable to celebrate at a time like this." The man relaxed into his seat, seemingly at calm even knowing that seating opposite to him was probably the most dangerous living ninja of his time, "People would be normally excited to know that war would be averted so soon after another war."

Minato nodded in agreement, "I understand what you mean Kurasawa-san." He picked up a rather official looking document from the side, "Well then, shall we proceed?"

Endo merely smiled, "Of course Yondaime-sama."

XxX

(With Naruto)

"I thought you said you weren't going to come?" Naruto said glibly with an amused smile on his face as he traversed the streets of Konoha that were bustling with activity of all sorts.

Right beside him dressed in a kimono in his clan's colours, Shikamaru let out an irritable grumble, "My mom made me come." Troublesome woman. He was sure she got her jollies from ruining everything he thought that was fun.

Naruto had guessed that, from what he had learned about the Nara clan was that most of the time, it was the women who forced the apparently lazy Nara males to do any sort of activity. But that didn't mean he wasn't going to get his kicks out of this, "Or maybe you just wanted to come and hang around with your good old friend Naruto?"

Shikamaru just cast a dry look at Naruto, "Honestly? Lying in my room and doing nothing would be better than this." This was pure torture for him. He had to walk around people in case he bumped into them or something. And then their was the fact he had to wave and greet people who greeted them too. Dammit, why was one of his friends have to be the son of the village leader? It would be have been way easier if he was some nameless guy.

Naruto just rolled his eyes, "You need to lighten up some more Shika. Come on, let's see if we can find Chouji or something." He finished as he grabbed Shikamaru arm and dragged him further into the bustling streets.

Shikamaru would have struggled against being dragged, but hey, it saved him the energy to actually have to move himself, "You're so troublesome."

XxX

Overlooking the streets below, Kakashi let out a sigh from behind his mask. Elite Anbu his ass. He greatly respected his sensei, but really, why was he always stuck on the babysitting missions?

Naruto was fine and all of that, but he honestly wouldn't mind doing some of the more demanding aspects of the job that entailed being a member of the Anbu black ops.

Oh well, this was his mission and he was anything but a consummate professional with his job. With that thought he soon resumed following Naruto, making sure he didn't lose him in the crowd, 'Why couldn't Kurenai do this instead?' Because she was currently out of the village and visiting a 'friend'.

He couldn't help but giggle at that. Hide it as much as she liked, everybody knew where she was.

XxX

(Later)

Nara Iori could be considered strange by conventional thoughts that would be alluded to the clan that he hailed from. Firstly, he was quite ambitious, which was pretty much unheard off in a Nara. They settled always strived to be as mediocre or average as they could be.

But that was a mistake most people came to the conclusion with him. Yes, he was ambitious, but just slightly more so than the average Nara. His ambition wasn't something like becoming a notable jounin of some sort or even, kami forbid, Hokage.

No, he just wanted to get to a suitable station in his village's military that would allow him to coast through the rest of his life without too much trouble. Because that's what every Nara wanted, to coast through life with as little trouble as possible.

He certainly did not expect himself find himself a jounin several years after he had become a ninja, and had been completely and utterly horrified when he was recruited into the Anbu division. Shouldn't there have been some sort of rule against recruiting Nara for that particular division of the ninja force? His clan's tendency to be lazy had to be well known at least.

'Argh...' The deer masked Anbu member mentally groaned, 'Why did I even bother with the selection program? I should have just quit.' And probably had received a telling of from his mother and girlfriend, 'So troublesome.'

His Anbu squad was one of several that was making its round patrolling the village near the edge of the clan district. Due to paranoia and everything associated with it, security for that district was left well alone with each individual clan unless something of extreme importance or danger to Konoha was happening. Thus neither Anbu or the Military Police Force could enter that district.

Hearing a disturbance, he signalled a halt to his squad and went to investigate. He followed the sounds towards an alleyway and looked down into the darkened side-street, '_Tsuru,_' He hand signalled to his teams resident Yamanaka sensor, 'A Yamanaka and a Nara in the same team? Coincidence? I think not.' He mused as his subordinate appeared next to him, '_Anyone down there?'_

The crane-masked Anbu brought their hands in the ram seal and concentrated for a bit before pointing towards behind a large industrial bin, '_One chakra signal. It's unmoving. Probably a civilian from the amount of chakra I'm sensing.'_

Iori nodded before heading down. It was probably a reveller heading back to their home after partying in the festival. Whoever it was, it wouldn't be the first reveller his team had encountered over the course of the night. They had intervene quite a few times when a few drunk revellers started fighting amongst themselves or causing a public disturbance.

With the amount of people that were attending the festivities, to say that the Police Force was stretched would have been something of an understatement. It's members only numbered in the hundreds whilst the total population of Konoha was in the thousands.

Stretched was a definite understatement.

Iori landed on the ground and moved towards the bin. He turned around the edge and saw a clearly drunk reveller sleeping against the bin. He kneeled down towards the man and gave him a shake, "Hey, you can't sleep here. Do you need any help?" Konoha ninjas swore to protect the village and its inhabitants. That also meant being helpful to the villagers.

The drunk man groggily walk-up, a light tint of pink slightly visible on his cheeks thanks to the moonlight, "W-What, what's happening?" The man asked as he tried to stand up.

"Nothing." Iori said as he shook his head, "It's just you can't sleep here. Tell me where you live and I'll drop you off there." It wouldn't be too much of a hassle for him. It was better than letting the man stay out here in the cold. Especially during a time like this when crime would probably see an increase.

Although Iori couldn't help but feel a nagging feeling that something was off here. He didn't know what, but he definitely knew that something was wrong with this scene. He would have delved into it some more before shaking his head, 'This isn't the time to get paranoid.'

The man shook him off, "Thank you Shika-san, but I-I think I will be able to get back by myself." The man slurred as he stumbled to his feet.

"If you say so…" Iori said as he watched the man head down the alley, "Be safe." The man struggled to give him a thumbs up as he continued walking. The Anbu merely shook his head before making his way back to his squad, "Well that was interesting. Let's g-." And then something clicked, "Wait a second…" He turned his head in the direction of the reveller.

He had figured something was off with the scene he had stumbled upon, but he didn't know what it was. But now he was. For a drunk, the man didn't smell like he had drunk himself into a stupor.

"Captain?"

Iori immediately turned to his subordinates, "Come on, I think we have a situation." He said as he signalled them to follow him. He immediately darted down to the alley way from before and ran after the man whilst his squad stuck to the rooftops.

Eventually, he came to a halt when he noticed the man, "Excuse me sir, you dropped something back then?"

The man stumbled to a halt and turned to face Iori, drunk look on his face still present, "Really? Why you're such a kind man. That's why I like you ninja folks." The man slurred out as he seemingly checked his pockets, "What did I drop anyway?"

"Your cover."

"What?"

"Drop the act." Iori said as his hand went to the katana on his back, "Identify yourself now." He finished as he grasped the handle.

The man stumbled back, seemingly in fear, "Anbu-san, what is this?"

'I might be making the biggest mistake of my life or this guy is a really good actor.' Iori thought rather darkly as he drew his katana slightly from its sheathe, "If that's how you want to play it, let's see how you'll be able to handle yourself with one of our interrogators." Lucky for him, he had a Yamanaka on call.

He took a step forward only to have to quickly bring out his katana to deflect a kunai thrown in his direction, "Dammit!" He heard the 'drunk' curse, "And here I thought I had managed to fool you." The man looked around, "I guess your squad is hidden among the rooftops. Might as well bring them out."

Iori simply obliged and ordered them to reveal themselves. Which they did, all with their weapons drawn, "Once more, surrender." Iori ordered, "You're surrounded."

The man seemingly let out a scoff of disappointment, "Only four of you? This will be easier than I thought." He said as he drew a kunai from his clothing.

"If that's how it is…" Iori said as he fully drew his katana, "Capture him."

At the utterance of that order, his squad blurred into motion at the man. Tsuru, the fastest of his squad was the first to engage him with a thrust that was easily parried by the man who went to stab Tsuru in the head, but had to quickly move out of the position he was instead lest he be stabbed by tendrils of shadow, "Kage Nui no Jutsu (Shadow Sewing Jutsu)!"

The man continued to traverse their small battlefield expertly as he continued trading strikes with the three other Anbu that were engaging him whilst also being pursued by the tendrils of shadow, 'Okay, he's no amateur.' Iori thought as he missed the man once more, 'Whoever he is, he's good.' This would have been much easier if he could just put a name to the face.

Trying to corral the man into areas hidden in the shadows of the night was a difficult task as he simply seemed to keep tabs on such areas and would take the fight to areas where the moonlight was shining.

"That's the problem with you Naras," Iori's eyes widened as he immediately cancelled his jutsu and jumped back to barely avoid a kunai strike, "You think far too much. And if you are smart enough, you know how to fight them, Raigen Raikochu (Lightning Illusion Flash of Lightning Pillar)!"

A blinding light seemingly began to emanate from the man, causing the Anbu to stop to cover their eyes lest they go blind. Unfortunately for them, that was all the man needed to quickly move to take care of them.

Iori lay on the ground holding onto his wound as he glared up at the man, "Oh don't look at me like that. It's nothing personal." The man said as he could practically feel the glare coming from Iori.

"Yeah, you're right," Iori stated with a bloody grin behind his mask, "It's nothing personal alright. But you should know something," He knew he definitely got the man's attention, "The blonde that was with me, Tsuru, he's a Yamanaka sensor _and _telepath…" He grinned some more when he saw the man's eyes widen, "Yeah, you're in the shit."

Fuck. He had spend to much time fighting against this squad. He had to leave right now. The man quickly turned to leave only to notice several new presences in the area. All of them were armed and they all had masks covering their faces.

He let out a slight chuckle, "Well, I'm in a bit of a pickle."

XxX

(Hyuuga Compound)

The Hyuuga Compound was a bustle of activity as various ninja of the famous Hyuuga clan were quickly scouring their clan grounds. Some had even ventured forth from their own clan's grounds and were spreading into the rest of the village.

The reason why being that the Hyuuga heiress, the daughter of the clan leader had suddenly disappeared from her room. And considering who the girl was, she wouldn't just go and 'disappear' into thin air. Something had happened.

That was all too clear to see.

XxX

(Namikaze Home)

Minato had just received a report that his Anbu had apprehended a completely and utterly random nuke-nin that had infiltrated the village. Before they could interrogate the man about his dealings, he had seemingly committed suicide by blowing himself up.

A few of the Anbu on the scene had been caught in the explosion with casualties including an entire squad of Anbu and another.

With all this information, Minato couldn't help but think that there was more to this than just a simple infiltration by a nuke-nin. A powerful nuke-nin apparently who was able to best a squad of Anbu.

And once more, suspicion went towards the Kumo delegation once more. Although it was frowned upon, like any other good kage, he had several squads of Anbu watching them. And if anything had happened, he would have known.

'Maybe I'm thinking too much into it?' The young Hokage thought, 'Maybe there's no connection at all.'

But until he had definite proof, he couldn't help but think there was a connection to it. Right now, he had to head back to the Hokage Tower and deal with the effects of their unwanted guest.

He couldn't help but think that the only way a nuke-nin had managed to enter the village was because of the festival and parade, 'Security really needs to be improved at times like this.' He thought as he began to make plans so that something like this doesn't happen again in the future.

Naruto was spending the night at Shikamaru's and he had no doubts that Kakashi had already heard of the incident and was on extra alert.

"Hokage-sama!"

Minato hadn't even taken a step out of his home when he was greeted with a Hyuuga clan member in front him, "Yes?" He asked rather startled.

"An urgent situation has happened." The Hyuuga quickly said, "Hinata-sama has disappeared!"

Those sons of-It was a feint. The entire business with the nuke-nin was a feint for the real target. If he had to guess, the nuke-nin was supposed to run wild some more before he was found and during that time, another agent would capture their intended target.

He had no doubts to who it was. Kumo always did have a thing for people with Kekkei Genkai (Bloodline Limit) and they just happened to have Kumo ninjas in town.

Minato immediately dropped to the ground and placed his index finger on the ground and closed his eyes in concentration. He spread his senses far and wide before noting a rather noticeable and distinctly powerful chakra along with a small chakra heading straight for the outskirts of the village.

Think they would just enter his village and kidnap one of its inhabitants? Not on his watch.

XxX

(Outskirts of Konoha)

That had been easier than he had thought. For a clan fabled for their all-seeing eyes, they sure had noticeable gaps in their security.

That fool of a nuke-nin that had been hired to attract attention around the village had been caught quicker than had been anticipated. That had forced him to quicken up the schedule a little bit, but nothing that couldn't be handled.

Konoha was far in the distance behind him and in a sack behind him, there was the target of the mission. A young female Hyuuga from the Main Branch.

His village somewhat lacked in the sensor department. A Hyuuga for the village would be a great thing to have. He had no doubts that the Hyuuga would be used, for lack of better term, to breed other Hyuugas for his village and even research the Byakugan and see if they could replicate its abilities to an extent.

So was the life of a shinobi. It was just unlucky for her.

"I'm going to have to commend you on this. This was rather an ingenious plan."

The kidnapper stopped cold as he heard the voice. A slight shiver rolled down his back. This was impossible. No matter how fast he was, there was no way he was quick enough to catch up to him and have the time to leisurely wait for him.

Minato jumped down from the rock he had been sitting on, a look of utter seriousness on his face, "This is the second time your village has tried something like this." He said with an utterly casual and calm tone that belied the look on his face, "You would think after the first time, you would have learned. I expected more from A." He shrugged uncaringly, "But hey, like father, like son. So the saying goes."

After finding his voice, the kidnapper couldn't help but voice a question that had been going through his mind, "...How?"

"Does it matter?" Minato asked, "You're going to die anyway." He wasn't really happy about this. He was going to be sending a message to Kumo and anyone else that would ever think to take advantage of Konoha.

Also, whether he was going to die or not, the man didn't have to know about his network of Hiraishin kunais and markers dotted throughout the outskirts of Konoha and countryside of Hi no Kuni. He had set up that network so that he would be able to quickly react and respond to potential dangers to his village.

He didn't actually think he would have to use it in the manner that he was doing right now. To stop someone leaving.

The man behind the mask, Endo grit his teeth as he drew a kunai. He knew he didn't stand a chance, but he wasn't just going to lie down and take it. Who knew, he may even get lucky and win.

"You're going to fight? Commendable." Minato said as he drew his own special, three-pronged kunai, "But you should know something," He vanished and appeared in front of the Kumo ninja, his hand already in the position of someone who had finished a slashing motion, "This fight was already over."

Endo couldn't help but think that Minato truly deserved his title as the fastest man in history. Faster than even the Raikage. He hadn't even seen anything, no blur, nothing. And his blood was now just spraying out, as if a time lag had occurred before his body realised there was an opening to splurt out the blood.

Minato watched as Endo unceremoniously fell to the ground. He didn't stare for long and instead moved to the bag the man was carrying. He opened it to reveal the young Hyuuga heiress, "Hinata right?" He asked with a gentle smile on his face as the girl shakily nodded her head, looking up at him with her pale eyes, "Don't be scared. You're safe now. You'll be home in no time at all."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Was the ending a bit of a let down? I thought so too. Then I realised that Hiashi beat this guy in seconds, so Minato could beat this guy in a second. That says a lot about the quality of Kumo's head ninja :L<strong>

**Well, I'll give a cookie to anyone who can guess what comes next in the next chapter!  
><strong>

**Raiden out.**


	4. Into The Shadows

**thestorymaker2: If you're wondering if my Naruto is going to be ninja jesus? No, he's not going to be ninja jesus. He will just be a ninja, killing and all that included.**

**Alley McNally: Yeah, I need to find a beta reader. But I'll try my damnest on my own until then.**

**Hugo0974: Don't worry, he's not going to be god-like. I know he's badass, but he won't nerf every single guy that comes against him. Even he will have fights that he will find difficult. I agree Minato is a lot like Itachi, a ninja with extreme skill, but he's unlike Itachi in that regard because he knows senjutsu...which means Minato has rather large and powerful chakra reserves, even more now with Yin Kurama inside him. But that still won't make him god-like or anything.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

* * *

><p><span><strong>Chapter 4 - Into The Shadows<strong>

The area around the Hokage Tower was one of the most active places in the entirety of Konoha. Even though the district it was situated in could be described as the 'military' district, there was always a number of civilian enterprises in the area.

Reason being that the tower was located at an intersection that was connected to all the other areas of the village. And one would expect that on a clear summers day like this, activity would be bustling, but that wasn't so.

No civilian or ninja for that matter could be seen within yards of the tower. In fact, for those moving about, they made sure to keep as far away from the building as possible. The reason being that if they got too close, they would suddenly start to feel as if death had held a grip onto their necks and was pressing ever so slowly.

Living inside a military installation such as this, the villagers knew full well that this was the effect of killing intent. And not just any killing intent, but the killing intent of the reigning Hokage.

Reason being that inside his office as of now, Namikaze Minato was staring blankly at the person sitting in front of him, "...I'm sorry, but could you repeat what you just said?" He asked ever so slowly. Failing to put the pleasantness he was trying to put into his voice or trying to not sound like he was going to outright kill the person in front of him if he said the completely wrong answer.

The person, a diplomat from Kumo gulped dryly for the umpteenth time, his mouth having run out of saliva more than ten minutes ago the moment he had spoken for the reason as to why he was here, "E-eh w-well you see Hokage-sama, we find it t-that Konoha is in the w-wrong for the i-incident that occurred last m-month." Oh kami, why did it have to be him? Couldn't they send someone else? He was sure he was going to have a heart-attack if the man narrowed his eyes again.

Minato sat there, expression blank as he contemplated of what he had just heard, "We are in the wrong for stopping the kidnapping of the daughter of a clan leader?" He finally said after several moments.

The diplomat looked like he didn't even want to say the next words, "O-Of course. K-Kumo would have n-never ordered such a t-thing. The death of K-Kurawasa-san is on your h-head." He stammered out rather quickly, "It's only natural w-we are given compensation."

And that compensation was the body of a Hyuuga, more specifically, Hyuuga Hiashi, the current clan head of the clan. Minato had to give it to them, they were rather stubborn with their pursuit of the Byakugan in this manner.

"And do you honestly expect us to believe an excuse like that?" Minato asked rhetorically. No matter how you looked at it, their argument was flimsy at best. Konoha wouldn't just go and acquiesce to their demand just like that.

"As I-I said, i-its not an excuse. Konoha w-was in w-wrong. We did nothing wrong, the d-death of Kurasawa-san is entirely on your heads." The man stammered out as he sweated bullets, "If we're not c-compensated, then this c-could only m-mean war."

And just like that, the killing intent stopped, confusing the diplomat although he was very thankful, him and many others, "Is that so?" Minato said with a sweet smile on his face, eyes closed shut. He got up and held a hand to shake the man with, "Thank you for telling us this. You can return to Kumo whenever you wish. You will receive an answer to your demands by the end of the week I'm sure."

The diplomat just sat there blinking owlishly at the sudden change in the Hokage before not wishing to be in the presence of the man any longer quickly got up and shook his hand, "I-It's no problem at all H-Hokage-sama." He had to wince halfway through the shake due to the pressure the man was putting on, "I will show myself out." He said as he removed his hand, bowed and made for the door, 'And out of this village.' Because their was no way he was going to stay in a village full of hostile assassins. The news about Kumo had spread throughout the village and when he had arrived, he had received nothing more than death glares from every villager who understood the situation.

Minato stood watching the door for several moments before slumping into his seat. The council will of course have to be notified about this. He could already guess what the reactions to the demands would be.

Danzo, along with Homura and Koharu would wholeheartedly reject such a notion. With the other two putting more spirit into their argument to cover for Danzo's taciturn manner. His predecessor would look at it with a little bit more emotion, at best, he would probably try to think of other solutions than giving away one of Konoha's Kekkei Genkai.

Of course the Hyuuga clan would have to be notified of this since this does involve them in the same manner. And with that train of thought, Minato realised Hiashi would readily accept the terms if it meant that war would be circumvent with Kumo. He was noble like that.

In fact, he might also be blaming himself for something like this to happen by arguing that he should have placed more security around his compound. But that didn't matter, the decision would ultimately rest on him, the commander-in-chief, the great Yellow Flash.

Sometimes, he wished that a job advert existed for this particular position. It would at least have helped him prepare himself for all the things he would have to deal with when he accepted it.

"Just another day in the office…"

XxX

(Outskirts of Konoha)

Ah, how he had missed the monotonous and sometimes (the majority of the times) life endangering life of the Konoha Anbu. There was no better place to give yourself pats on the back about how damnably good of a shinobi you are by constantly doing missions that would have broken many a people. And just by simply coming back from those missions would just show how good at your job you really are.

And to make it even better, the less wounds and scratches you came back with, the easier it was to show how elite you were.

Funny really, he had been doing this job since he was thirteen. And four years later, he didn't know what people complained about Anbu being too dark of a thing.

Sure, there was some unsavoury business involved in some of the missions. But that was the life of a ninja. Unless you were the type of ninja that was best served in the Cryptanalysis Division, one would always expect to eventually come across some sort of unpleasant business on a mission.

He would have liked to cap of a successful mission by going back to his apartment, read a book of some sort, maybe that book he had bought that was written by Jiraiya, that seemed like an interesting read and then finally go to the Memorial Stone and cap of his mission to his two deceased teammates. Maybe even tell them about how much of a little devil their sensei's son was.

Yeah, that was definitely a good plan. Unfortunately, duty had called in the form of a rather suspicious group of individuals that the elite group of Anbu that were known as Team Ro had to investigate.

The team, led by Kakashi himself, had been coming back from a seek & destroy mission deep inside the borders of Tsuchi no Kuni. They had managed to carry it out with extreme efficiency that was required of them and had come out unscathed.

Whilst they had neared their home village, one of their sensors had picked up several chakra signatures not too far away from them. Due to the knowledge of the patrol routes, and knowing that no patrol was scheduled to be anywhere near the area they were in until much later, they had gone to investigate.

What they had come across, much to their surprise were members of the Prajna Group, the Anbu of the Hayashi no Kuni. Instead of outright ambushing them and asking what foreign ninja were doing in Konoha, Kakashi merely ordered his team to follow them.

There was no point in starting an international incident, even with a small country like Hayashi no Kuni, when the ninja could just be passing through to the place of their mission. No matter how dangerously close they were to Konoha.

So they stealthily followed them as the ninja made their way through the outskirts of Konoha. Eventually, they came to a halt in a clearing and waited.

They didn't have to wait for long until another group of ninja made themselves known. Although the next group was slightly worrying. Kakashi and like many in his team could recognise the ninja that had appeared.

It was Root.

The Anbu subdivision that only answered to one man that wasn't the Hokage. The division itself wasn't well known, even throughout the rest of the Anbu division and wider ninja forces. They rarely recruited from the conventional forces, which brought slews of theories as to how they continued to keep its numbers up...which were unknown.

Because Root was all about the secrecy.

'_What do we do Inu-taichou?'_ A purple haired Anbu and resident sensor, wearing a cat mask signalled him.

Kakashi could feel the other members eyes on him, waiting for him to order their next course of action. The masked ninja didn't really know how to proceed with this. Root was entirely independent in everything they did. Conventional Anbu and Root barely ever ran into each other on the field. And when they did, they went their separate ways without asking questions.

That was the common courtesy they handed to each other.

But this entire situation was rather fishy. Why would Root be meeting with ninjas from a country that had been becoming slowly hostile with them lately ever since Hi no Kuni had slowly been working into annexing it?

Something was fishy with this entire deal.

'_We do nothing._' Kakashi signalled to his subordinates, '_But that doesn't mean we can't just hang around and overhear what they're talking about._'

He received a slew of nodded heads from the rest of the ninja. The silver-haired ninja turned his attention back to the meeting taking place. Since he couldn't read their lips due to the masks they were wearing, he had to use his rather sharp ears to try and pick-up what they were saying.

Kami, how he wished he had an Inuzuka or Aburame on his team, or better yet, a Hyuuga for that matter. Those eyes of theirs would have made this entire thing easier.

Kakashi brought his hands together in a ram seal and channelled chakra into his ears to increase his already excellent hearing. But they were too far away, there was no wind to carry their voices, therefore he could only make out snippets of the conversation.

"What...in for us?"

"...Agree, Danzo-sama...than willing to assist...your country…"

"...st Danzo? Why would...him?"

"...ot a matt...but Danz...word."

Even though he could hear only snippets, Kakashi was intelligent enough to know whatever he was hearing, definitely wasn't good. Whatever deal Danzo was trying to negotiate here, it would probably be beneficial towards Hayashi no Kuni, how, he didn't know.

*WOOSH*

It was at that moment, a sudden burst of wind went through the area...and Team Ro was located exactly downwind of that burst of wind. If these were any sort of decent Anbu, they would have-.

"We're being watched!"

-Noticed them. Shit. Time to pull out, but he was sure that the two groups of ninjas on the forest floor wouldn't allow something like that, '_Pull back!'_ Kakashi ordered which were immediately followed by the team members.

The two groups of Anbu were already on them as Team Ro sped through the trees, "It's the Hokage's Anbu! We cannot allow them to report back to the Hokage." One of the Ne Anbu stated with the dull, emotionless voice that seemingly was the norm among ninjas of that subdivision, "Kinoe!"

"Mokuton: Daijurin no Jutsu (Wood Release: Great Forest Jutsu)!"

Kakashi looked back with eyes widened in surprise at what he was seeing and he was sure he wasn't the only one at that. What he was seeing, there was only one other person in the history of the entire world who could do it, and he had been dead for well over several decades.

'Mokuton...' Kakashi thought, scarcely believing the thought that went through his head even though he was seeing a jutsu from that particular elemental branch coming right at him in slow motion. And because of that, he managed to deftly evade the wooden branch that was sent his way to impale the life out of him.

He came to a sudden halt on one of the tree branches and looked back at the chasing ninja. Landing beside him was the rest of his team, who had also managed to evade the attack. They weren't elites for nothing, 'But then again, that was probably used to try and stop us from escaping.'

But that didn't matter, the mission parameters had changed. Whoever this 'Kinoe' person was, he had to be captured and brought back to Konoha. It was that simple. The Mokuton was right up there with the Sharingan as being one of the most valuable kekkei genkais to have, ability to suppress bijuu notwithstanding.

Questions were already going through Kakashi's head. The most obvious being how their was someone with the kekkei genkai in the first place when only the Shodaime Hokage was the only person in history to have the ability. Hell, even his children didn't show any traits of gaining the ability.

And since the Senju clan weren't the way of the dinosaurs with only one member left and judging by the size and build of this 'Kinoe', he sure wasn't as hell the son of that last clan member. Even if he was, there was no way in hell she would live her own blood under the care of someone like Danzo, 'Well, there's only one way to find out.'

Kakashi drew his katana, his team already had drawn theirs long before and all were in a manji formation, Ne and Prajna ninjas surrounding them, cutting of any escape, "Well, I can honestly tell you that I'm rather surprised to see a Mokuton (Wood Release) user in this day and age." The young Anbu said in mock surprise, "You wouldn't be so nice to just give up the guy would you? We're all Konoha ninjas here after all…"

"Not us." One of the Prajna group remarked as he twirled a rather wicked looking sword that looked and was shaped like a kunai.

"Duly noted. Tell it to someone who cares." Neko remarked flippantly, "Taichou, we'll handle this. You go after that Kinoe person." The mission variables had changed. The Mokuton was more important than their lives. Something like that just couldn't be left alone.

Kakashi nodded before springing into action, heading straight for his intended target. Two ninjas, one Prajna and the other Ne went to cut him off only to be brought down in a hail of metal from a bear masked Anbu who was covering Kakashi's approach, who had to immediately turn to his own battle.

"Mokuton: Daijurin no Jutsu (Wood Release: Great Forest Jutsu)!"

'This again.' Kakashi thought as he saw the branches of wood come at him again. He immediately went through hand-seals at a quick pace for his signature jutsu, "Chidori (One Thousand Birds)!"

The sounds of countless birds chirping soon joined the sounds of battle going around the area as Kakashi used his lightning coated hand to cut through the tree branches, "Well would you look at that, lightning beats wood." He drawled as he landed on the branch the wood-using ninja stood at and went for a debilitating strike with the chidori to the thigh.

Instead all he did was plow through wood, 'A substitution?' And this was a rather special substitution to as it was shaped like a human being. Made out of wood. That was new, 'What's wrong with the log? The log is perfectly fine.'

Kakashi had to immediately kick into high gear to avoid several more branches of wood that were trying their damnest to fill him full of holes. The dog-masked ninja slinked behind a thick tree branch and used it as cover and could feel the slight tremors the tree gave when the wood based attack hit it.

Not staying to see if there were anymore surprises, Kakashi immediately rushed out of his cover and made a dash for where the wood originated from, money being on where Kinoe was. He threw a smoke bomb to cover his advance and relied on his sense of smell to catch onto his target.

"Suiton: Suijinheki (Water Release: Water Formation Wall)!"

A large volume of water was suddenly spit out by Kinoue who directed it towards the smoke cloud. Since he couldn't see where Kakashi was, the best thing to do was wash him out. And wash him out he did as Kakashi jumped higher into the tree tops to evade the water and being washed away to the ground below.

Kakashi had barely made contact with the ground where he was instantly met by Kinoe who was wielding a tipless tanto, standard issue for Ne operatives, to clash against the silver-haired ninjas katana.

The two ninjas clashed in a duel of blades all along the tree tops and Kakashi had to admit that his opponent was rather good. Rather good for his age in fact. In fact, if it was anyone else, he was sure the younger ninja would put many ninja through their paces.

But he wasn't just any other ninja. He was Hatake Kakashi, student of the Yondaime Hokage, and the man with a Sharingan. With his special red eye, he could see Kinoe's strikes in slow motion, giving him the ability to be able to dodge, parry or block any of his attacks.

Kinoe just wasn't fast enough to try and put that particular advantage of the Sharingan out of the game. And it showed, Kakashi was relatively pristine clean whilst Kinoe was spotting cuts all around his body.

"Mikazuki no Mai (Dance of the Crescent Moon)!"

Kinoe found himself in the middle of a pincer attack from the left, right and above and received several cuts from a blade because of it. The young shinobi staggered backwards as he held his wounds.

"I had that perfectly handled." Kakashi chastised his subordinate rather casually as he continued to look at Kinoe.

Neko landed next to him, sword out and directed at the wood using Ne agent, "I was done with my opponents."

"The others?"

"They were the ones that suggested I go help you." She coolly replied, "Priorities and all that."

Kakashi nodded, "Right, let's finish this." That book was waiting for him.

"Kinoe!" One of the last remaining Ne agents yelled, "Retreat! Danzo-sama can't afford to lose someone of your abilities!" He ordered as he appeared in front of the young ninja, ready to throw away his life to make sure the younger ninja escaped.

Kinoe hesitated for a few seconds before nodding and splitting away from the group.

"Oh no you don't!" Neko immediately tried to give chase only to be stopped by the Ne agent from before who appeared in front of her. Her eyes widened when she heard the tell tale sounds of sizzling explosive tags.

*BOOM*

Neko peeked open an eye and looked around and noticed that she was still breathing and more importantly, not in pieces all over the area. She looked at her saviour and gave him a nod of thanks, "Thank you taichou."

"No worries." Said captain replied as he surveyed the scene of the mini-skirmish, "Our target would be long gone by now." He could give chase, but it would be smart enough to think that Ne probably had safe houses in the area. Places for their agents to go lie low or rest, "Come on, let's go help the others." He finished as he jumped back into the fray against the remaining ninjas.

Mokuton, how was he ever going to explain that to the Yondaime?

XxX

(Konoha - Namikaze Home)

This job was either going to give him an aneurysm or a tumour. And he didn't know which he would prefer that would give the quicker death. Maybe a combination of both would do the trick to an excellent degree.

Minato was in his home that he shared with his son who was currently outside working on how to throw a sufficient punch like he had shown him. The older blonde himself was currently lying down on his sofa, eyes closed and in thought.

The council had gone the way that he had entirely thought it was going to go when he had told them of Kumo's demands for compensation for him 'Killing their diplomat for no reason and then proceeding to accuse them of unsavoury deeds'.

(_Flashback)_

_(Council Chambers)_

"_They want us to compensate them for killing a shinobi that was trying to steal one of our most powerful bloodlines!?" Koharu couldn't have shouted any louder than she had done then. She was rather incensed by what the Raikage and Kumo in general were trying to pull. They had started this entire thing._

_Minato winced at the volume of the sound that assaulted his ears, "Yes." He replied simply, controlling himself from having to clear out his ears with his finger, "They want a Hyuuga for compensation too."_

"_Then we give them a Hyuuga." Danzo calmly said as he sat in his seat, eyes closed._

_All four pairs of eyes went towards the old warhawk in disbelief. It was Hiruzen who eventually voiced the question they were all thinking, "Why?" Danzo would have been the last person in the entirety of Konoha, even the world who would agree to something like that._

_Danzo raised a hand and made a small motion of dismissal, "I don't mean what you are all thinking. I am simply saying give them a body of a Hyuuga they're asking for." He said, "You all seem to forget that there are two branches of the Hyuuga clan."_

_And with that, realisation hit the other council members. What Danzo was proposing was rather ingenious. Since Kumo wanted a Hyuuga body, Konoha would gladly give them a Hyuuga body. A body that belonged to the Branch House of the clan though._

_The members of a clan were the moment the Hyuuga dies, the eyes are sealed away forever and nothing is learned for them._

_Homura nodded his head in agreement, "I see...I understand now."_

_Minato understood too, that was actually a very good plan. But there was just one tiny, little problem, "They specifically requested the body of Hyuuga Hiashi." A Main House member. Someone who didn't have the Caged Bird Seal on their being. That sort of rendered Danzo's entire plan moot._

_And with that, Danzo quickly changed his tune, "Then we give them nothing." The Byakugan was one of the main reasons Konoha was as strong as it was. The abilities it had was profound and one of the many reasons Konoha has never been successfully invaded before. With its abilities, Konoha would know enemies coming from miles away and prepare themselves to act accordingly._

_Hiruzen finally spoke for the first time as he released a plume of smoke from his pipe, "Which would result in Kumo declaring war on us." All because they refused to walk away from this whole affair empty-handed._

"_Then we go to war." Danzo said in a taciturn manner, "The Byakugan is one of Konoha's greatest assets. We cannot just give it away to other villages to try and stave of something that will soon happen again in the future." Because that was the eventuality. Sooner or later, it may be tomorrow, next week, a month from now, even a decade, another war would soon start over something or another._

_Conflict was simply a nature that was too ingrained in humans._

_Minato frowned, there was some truth in Danzo's words. He just couldn't give away something as important as the Byakugan away to another village to stave of a war that may happen in the future._

_But Konoha was hardly back to full strength. They were still recovering from their losses from the last war that had only ended a little over a decade ago and then their was the attack by the Kyuubi. _

_Just by sheer numbers alone, Kumo outnumbered them. At best, it was 2-to-1 and at worst 3-to-1 maybe even 4-to-1. None of the villages have accurate information on the number of shinobi the other villages had. But it was widely assumed that all the major villages at least had a shinobi force that was at the very least 20,000 strong, not including genin of course._

"_You should know we would have a very difficult time to even win another war so soon after the last one and the Kyuubi attack Danzo." Hiruzen pointed out, the voice of calm and reason in the room, "This war you would so want to throw ourselves first into could be the end of Konoha."_

_Danzo scoffed, "I won't allow Konoha to be destroyed." That was his life, to make sure Konoha was safe. He would never endanger his beloved village, "I would do everything in my power to see that we win." His lone visible eye cracked open to look at Hiruzen, "And what would you advise our young Hokage do Hiruzen? Cowl to their demands? What will that make us look to the rest of the world?" He asked, even though he wasn't waiting for anyone to answer his question, "I know; weak. We have to show the world we're the strongest for a reason. By cowling to Kumo's demands, it would just give the other villages a reason to just instigate another conflict."_

_Minato hated to admit it, but Danzo had a point. This was a lose-lose situation for Konoha. Cowl to the demands, and they look weak. The other villages may try something, which could soon lead to another war._

_But if they do the opposite, Kumo will just declare war on them and another war would have been started. A war that they would probably lose. Quality was quality, but sometimes, having the numbers could mean a whole lot in a war._

_In other words, it was up to him to choose the best course of action for the village, 'And the choice has to be the lesser of two evils.' But which one of those choices could be counted as the lesser of two evils? They both sounded equally evil since they seemed to end with the same event; war._

_Minato sighed as he got up from his seat, "Thank you for your council. But I believe I'll think over the options some more." Hey, who knows, a third option might even show itself if he thought hard enough. An option that wouldn't lead to another war so soon after another._

_(End of Flashback)_

Minato felt a pressure on his chest and removed his forearm that was covering his eyes to notice Naruto sitting on his chest, feet dangling at the side, "What are you doing?"

"Sitting." The young blonde replied rather cheekily, the grin on his face not making his reply any better.

Minato's lips quirked in amusement, "I'm sure there's another seat in the room." He said, indicating to the perfectly fine couch on one side an the two seater sofa on the other side of the room.

Naruto shook his head, "But I like this seat instead." The young blonde said, his small hands clasped around the T.V. remote, scrolling through the channels, "It has the best view of the T.V."

"Hmm," The blonde Hokage hummed in thought, "I don't know about that. Your mom was the one who decorated this room and she always said the couch had the best view."

Naruto stuck out his tongue at his father, "Liar!" The blonde accused. He had set on the couch, and he didn't like the view. If he was so much like his mother, why would he like that view instead of this one?

Minato had an expression of mock hurt, "Are you calling your own father a liar?" He asked, tone filled with hurt of the mock kind, "I'm hurt."

Naruto didn't bite, "But you are! This is the best place to watch T.V."

"Really?" Minato said, failing to hide the amusement in his voice, "And who told you that exactly."

The whiskered blonde squinted his eyes at his father, giving him something of a disbelieving look, "You did silly!" He remembered very well his dad telling him this was the best place to seat.

Minato stroked his chin in thought, "Really? I don't think so to be honest."

Naruto just continued looking him with the same expression before it changed into one of victory, "Then why do we always seat here when we have movie night?"

Oh, he got him there, "...Because its comfy?" Naruto just looked at him with a dry expression. Minato then let out a good-natured laugh of defeat. He could have continued but his son was rather stubborn about things like this. This would have just continued and continued and continued, "Alright, you win. This is the best seat in the house."

Naruto positively beamed at that official sign of surrender, "Ha! I won!" He then looked at his father with a more even tempered look, "What's wrong dad?"

Minato raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean Naruto?"

The young blonde shuffled in his seat, slightly uncomfortable about broaching the subject. He had come in and had seen his father with a serious look on his face that made him sad. He didn't know whether to ask, simply because it might have been an adult problem and something that he wouldn't understand.

But being the good son that he was, he didn't want to see his father sad. That's why he had approached him. He was rather glad he had caused him to brighten up a little with their little 'seat fight'.

Minato saw and felt Naruto shuffle on him and the conflicted look on his face, "Come on Naruto, you can ask me anything." He urged as he sat up and placed Naruto in his lap, facing the television screen. He wanted to be that sort of dad. The one were his son could come to him for anything.

Kushina would have definitely drilled him out for that role in his son's life.

At his father's urging, Naruto tilted his head down as he suddenly found his feet and the ground in general rather interesting, "Well, I saw you all serious and sad and was wondering what was wrong. I thought I could help with whatever problem you were having or something."

Aw.

Was he worried about his father? And he wanted to help with his father's problem? That was so cute. So, so, very, very cute.

Minato smiled gently at his son, "I'm not sad or anything like that Naruto."

Naruto tilted his head up to look at an equally pair of big blue eyes, "Then why were you frowning?"

"Oh you know, Hokage stuff." Whether it was his son or not, he really couldn't tell him about the whole Kumo situation now could he? He might trust Naruto with his entire being, but that was confidential government stuff. Stuff only higher-ups like him should know about.

Naruto gave his father a deadpan stare, "You always say that." He accused, "What is Hokage stuff anyway?"

Minato gave an amused grin at him, "You'll have to be Hokage to find out."

Naruto's face dropped into a frown of deep thought before he jumped off his father's lap and onto the floor. He turned around and pointed at his dad, "I have to be Hokage? Fine!" He said, "Just you wait, I'll become Hokage and learn all about this Hokage stuff you wouldn't tell me."

"You have to be a ninja for that." Minato helpfully pointed out, "A really, really strong ninja too. Strong like your dad."

"Then I'll become really, really strong. Strong like you and Jiraiya-kyofu!" He then stopped and thought about it, "No…" He said as he began to revise his last statement, bringing a raised eyebrow from Minato, "I won't be as strong as you or Jiraiya-kyofu," He said lowly, "I'll be even stronger than both of you! No, I'll be the strongest Hokage ever!"

"Big words coming from such a little man."

Naruto turned his attention to the doorway and saw his godfather leaning in the entrance. His eyes sparkled, "Jiraiya-kyofu!" He then caught onto what he said, "I'm four! How big do you expect me to be!?" Really, come on, for a four year old, Naruto was pretty tall.

Jiraiya merely shrugged in amusement, a wide grin on his face, "I was way taller than you at that age."

Naruto grumbled, "Shut up Jiraiya-kyofu."

Jiraiya let out a bellowing laugh as he entered the room, "Just so you know kid, I'm the strongest there is. There's no-one stronger than me."

Minato rolled his eyes at his sensei's usual boisterous attitude. Naruto was skeptical and it showed, "Then why aren't you Hokage?" As far as he knew, the Hokage was the strongest ninja in the village. Everyone respected the Hokage because of that.

"Because I'm far too awesome a man to be chained down by the old ball and chain."

Naruto gave him a quizzical look, "Wha…?"

Jiraiya waved him off as he took a seat on the couch, "You're too young to understand gaki. Didn't you say you were going to be stronger than me? Well, you're aren't going to be getting any stronger if you just stand there gaping. Go train or something." He grinned at the little boy as he threw some bait, "Maybe if you impress me, I'll show you a little neat jutsu."

And like that, Naruto's eyes widened and he immediately made for the backyard to train some more. There was no way he was going to rest when he had an opportunity to learn a new jutsu _before_ he even joined the academy.

Minato sighed as he shook his head, "I would like it if you didn't mess with him like that sensei."

Jiraiya grinned, "Now where's the fun in that?" He asked in a good natured rhetorical manner, "He's a good kid. A lot like Kushina though." But that wasn't a bad thing. That drive he had was definitely from the Uzumaki side of his family. Just as long as he didn't pick up any of her habits when he grew up.

"He is, isn't he?" Minato mused before taking a somewhat more serious look, "So what can I help you with sensei? I didn't think you would be back in the village so soon after leaving." And by soon, he meant four months. Jiraiya had a habit of going on extended outings away from the village.

Jiraiya also shared his apprentice's look, "There's been rumblings about this mercenary group in the world."

"A mercenary group?" That's what had caused Jiraiya to come back to Konoha so early? A mercenary group? What was so special about these ones? There were a lot of other mercenary groups in the world, not many of them were not worthy in the slightest, "What so special about them?"

"Iwa has been using them to fight their fights for them whilst they recuperate and reorganise."

Minato slowly nodded, "Okay, so what?" It wasn't that strange really. Most villages who had been on the wrong-end of a war utilised such groups to make up numbers whilst they rebuilt. The Great Five weren't exempt from that themselves.

"This group is exclusively made up of S-rank nuke-nin."

Okay, that made them special. S-rank nuke-nin never hanged around with each other. A clash of egos and all that, except if they believed in a higher power, such as a village in the case of Jiraiya, Hiruzen, Minato and the likes.

"Thank you sensei, I'll make sure to keep an eye out on them." Minato said, "What are they called?"

"Akatsuki." Jiraiya replied easily enough, "But that's not why you should keep an eye out on them for." Minato raised an eyebrow in curiosity as Jiraiya continued speaking, "You should be looking out for them because they're rather interested in bijuus from what I here. I don't know why, but they are."

And that blared out all sorts of alarms inside Minato's head and he glanced into the backyard, forgetting that he himself held the other half of a bijuu inside of him, "Naruto…"

Jiraiya nodded solemnly, "Yeah…" The legendary ninja stood up, "But the good news is that hardly anyone knows Naruto is the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi and you of course. It'll take some intensive investigation on their part to actually think Naruto held it." He paused for breath before speaking once more, "Another thing though is that they're apparently still recruiting. Whilst they're doing that, I'll head out and get out anymore information about them as I can. I'd step up Naruto's training just in case though. I'll help out whenever I visit."

Minato stood up, "Thank you sensei." He said as he gave the man a nod of thanks along with his verbal thanks.

"Don't thank me kid." Jiraiya said with a smile on his face, "I'm the kid's godfather. I have to look out for him don't I?" Minato was the closest thing he had to a son, and by proxy, Minato's son was the closest thing he had to a grandson. Family looked out for each other didn't they? And he was going to do that.

"I'll walk you out." Minato offered.

Jiraiya stopped, "I know where the door is thank you very much. I'm not senile like sensei just yet." He joked.

Minato laughed slightly, "I don't think Hiruzen-san would appreciate that."

"Well too bad for him." Jiraiya mused, "I'm sure he's used to it."

Minato watched Jiraiya leave his home and sighed as he scratched his head. Now there was a supposed group of S-rank ninja after bijuu? He couldn't help but wonder if this group had any connection to the masked man from that night four years ago.

The interest in bijuu was a definite no brainer on that part.

The blonde Hokage sighed and turned to look through the window to see his son train himself by throwing punches and kicks. Well, it might have been earlier than he had liked, but it was time to take an active role in his son's training rather than his usual passive role.

And with that thought, Minato headed towards the back.

XxX

(Sometime Later - Hokage Tower)

Kakashi stood in front of his commander-in-chief, face hidden by his mask as he looked at the man in question who was currently in deep thought. His team had arrived in the village several minutes ago and he had promptly dismissed them as he had gone to report to the chief by himself.

Right now, he could tell that his sensei was in thought about his teams encounter with Ne and the ninja of the Prajna Group and probably more specifically the Ne member known as 'Kinoe'.

"Mokuton…" Minato finally spoke slowly, looking directly at Kakashi, "And are you absolutely sure about this?"

Kakashi nodded his head in confirmation, "I wouldn't lie about this. The others saw it."

"But that's impossible." Tsunade was the last Senju alive and didn't have any children to his knowledge who could have inherited that kekkei genkai.

"That was my thought too." Kakashi said with a calm tone, "But then I saw it happen in front of my eyes." If the roles were reversed, he was sure he would be showing the same amount of disbelief as the chief.

"This would be so much easier if I could go to Danzo directly and question him about it." About that Mokuton using agent of his and his meeting with the Prajna Group. Everything was all to suspicious.

Argh, why did there have to be an agreement of Ne being left entirely independent under Danzo's authority? There should have been some stipulation that would have allowed him to at least have some authority over it.

But that was another thing for later, right now, his attention was on the Mokuton using ninja, "Alright, thanks Kakashi. You're dismissed."

"Hai." Kakashi nodded and left in a shunshin.

"Mokuton using ninja...decades after the last recorded one had died…" Minato mumbled, "This job…" Well, at least it meant that there was no such thing as a boring day. Every day was always interesting.

On the plus side, his paperwork had decreased greatly during this entire ordeal.

XxX

(Konoha - Ne Underground Base)

Damn it all. As if he needed this. He had just received Kinoe report of his encounter with the Anbu under the comment of Namikaze.

Danzo knew that the blonde Hokage couldn't really do anything. Ne was independent. The operatives only answered to him and that was it. Even if he asked about a Mokuton wielding shinobi, Danzo would just play ignorant. What happened in his division was his business.

At least that was a good thing.

Now onto the bad things. The project to revitalize the Mokuton were cancelled years ago. Long before Minato had ascended to become Yondaime. Knowing the young Hokage, he would probably research anything on the subject or ask Hiruzen about it.

Which in turn may reveal his relationship with Orochimaru. He was the only man who was capable of continuing his research in secret. As if the snake sennin needed any more eyes on him. He was already under suspicion for some of his activities.

How was he going to handle this?

He was supposed to stay in the dark, protecting Konoha until it was his time to step into the light. His ambition would come into jeopardy if more eyes were turned in his direction for what others might perceive as 'immoral' or 'unethical'.

Well, the only good thing was that Orochimaru had done what he had asked for. Now that his use had been served, it was perhaps time to force the snake to come out of its hole.

XxX

(Later That Night - Hokage Archives)

Minato sat in the Archives, next to him a lamp illuminating the various books and scrolls he had searched for in the archives for anything to do with the Mokuton.

He really didn't need this.

There were more pressing problems than the sudden re-appearance of the Mokuton, such as the continuing Uchiha situation and the Hyuuga affair. At the rate things just kept popping up, his gold hair might lose its colour and vibrancy and turn grey, or better yet, fall of his head altogether.

He had been burning the midnight oil so to speak since a few hours ago and he had yet to come across anything that could have helped him figure this out. But what could he have expected? This had Danzo written all over it. The man wouldn't leave any sort of evidence that could jeopardize his position in the village or anything like that.

'The sly old fox...'

At that moment, footsteps could be heard heading towards him before the smell of the high-quality tobacco Hiruzen smoked entered his nostrils. Danzo might have been a sly one, but there was also someone who was even better than him at that game, and he was Sarutobi Hiruzen, Minato's fountain of knowledge as far as he was concerned.

"Minato-kun," Hiruzen greeted as he stopped in front of the table, "What was so urgent that you needed my presence so late at night?" He asked. Most people would have been annoyed at being woken up close to midnight, but not Hiruzen, especially when it involved his successor. He might have been retired, but he would and always be available as a listening ear and fountain of wisdom for anyone willing to come to him.

Minato looked up at the man and smiled apologetically, "Sorry about that Hiruzen-san." He was indeed sorry. It had hit him that it would have been better to talk to the man the next day, but he wanted to get to the bottom of this rather quickly, "It's just I need the infinite wisdom of the man known as 'The Professor."

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow and noted the various scrolls and books littered on the table, "About the Mokuton?" He preemptively guessed, "I can't say I know too much about it. The Shodaime may have been one of my teachers, but he didn't exactly explain the full mechanics behind his kekkei genkai."

"It's not that," Well, it sort of involved that, but he was more interested in how someone who was most definitely not related to the Shodaime or a member of the Senju clan had that particular advanced nature control, "I'm just wondering how the Mokuton would skip several generations of the Shodai's direct descendants but suddenly show up in a Ne agent underneath Danzo."

That bit of news definitely caught Hiruzen's attention, "What?" And it had completely caught him off-guard, "That's impossible."

Minato nodded with a serious expression on his face, "Those were exactly my thoughts when Kakashi informed me about this Kinoe individual with the Shodai's abilities."

Hiruzen smoked his pipe in silence as he mulled over what he had just heard before his eyes widened slightly in realisation. But no, that was impossible, that project had been scrapped because it had been deemed unfeasible.

Ever attentive, Minato didn't miss the look on Hiruzen's face, "Is there something I should know?" Minato knew how the game was played. Just because he was now commander of the village and had control over 99% of its entirety, with the lone 1% being Ne. He knew that there were some secrets that even he wasn't privy too.

These sort of secrets mostly occurred during the time before he had come to power and thus were simply kept by the previous generation to themselves so that they didn't affect the next. He could already guess whatever Hiruzen had thought off was a secret that belonged in his generation.

Hiruzen looked at Minato before sighing and letting out a slow nod, "I would have hopped this wouldn't ever come to light." But then again, no matter how hard someone kept a secret, no matter how dark, it would somehow find a way to reveal itself to the world, "I'm sure you are aware that to suppress the bijuu, a Sharingan or the Mokuton are necessary of course."

Minato nodded, "Yes, but its believed that the Mokuton is more effective in that manner. After all, just because you had a Sharingan doesn't mean you can suppress a bijuu. The eye and the user itself have to be rather powerful to assert their will on the bijuu."

Hiruzen smiled lightly despite the direction the topic was going to head into, "Analytical as always, but yes, what you just said is true. The Sharingan is rather inferior in that manner to the Mokuton to the point that only a very small minority of Uchiha can actually be considered to have the ability to suppress biju." The Uchiha by themselves were a clan filled with members who had more skill than others when it came to battle, even more so with their famous eyes. But that didn't mean that they could just use them to control a bijuu or anything. In fact, only one person in history had a Sharingan that was enough to do that, and he was the contemporary rival of the Shodai.

From his generation, Uchiha Kagami could have been considered an Uchiha with a powerful enough Sharingan to be able to pull of the feat. His eyes were powerful enough, and he had equally strong chakra to go along with it. Two things considered vital in suppressing bijuu.

In fact, as of the current Uchiha, Kagami's descendent Shisui and the young Itachi also had similar potential to be able to do the same as the famous Uchiha patriarch. But that was neither here nor there.

"With that knowledge in mind, Konoha tried to recreate the Mokuton years since the passing of the Shodai." Hiruzen continued as he let out a plume of smoke, face locked into a serious expression.

"Recreate it?" Minato repeated, "How exactly?"

"By implanting the cells of Hashirama into volunteers."

Minato winced as he heard the rather grave tone in the mans voice, "I take it it didn't work so well?"

Hiruzen shook his head, "The Shodai's cells were far too powerful to be handled by anybody. No matter the amount of time and research that was invested into it, the cells would rapidly overpower the host and kill them. So it was scrapped since it was unfeasible."

"And Danzo somehow managed to make it feasible."

Hiruzen actually snorted at that, "Danzo is many things, but I doubt he has anyone under him with the intelligence or drive of actually managing to pull of such a feat of recreating the Mokuton."

Minato then raised a curious eyebrow, "Then who might you say have those traits?"

Hiruzen mulled in thought for a few minutes before speaking, "The Nidaime Hokage, he was a pioneer in researching the bodies of fallen shinobi, but he would have never touched his brother's body or tried to defile it in anyway." The previous Hokage said, voice filled with respect for his teacher, "Next would be Hiruko, he might have been sickly, but he was brilliant, rivaled only in intelligence with Orochimaru…"

"But Hiruko disappeared during the Second War and hasn't ever been heard off." Minato pointed out. In fact, no word had been heard of him ever since and it was thought the man had died, "So only Orochimaru-san would be left…" He said uneasily. He was basically putting one of the Sandaime's old students as a suspect in helping Danzo.

Hiruzen solemnly nodded, "Yes, he would be wouldn't he?" He let out a weary sigh, "I can't really say I'm surprised. Years ago, he would have been my number one choice in replacing me, but I don't know when, but he has somehow become more...sinister. I can just feel it."

Minato hummed before sighing and scratching his cheek in thought, "Don't say that Hiruzen-san. All we have is hearsay. We can't suspect Orochimaru-san simply because of that."

Hiruzen chuckled softly, "Maybe so. But maybe these disappearances we've been suffering from are connected to this." He turned around and walked away, "If it stops the villagers from having to leave in terror of what may happen. Whether it's hearsay or not, pursue that lead." He finished as he left the room.

Minato blinked in shock at that. The Sandaime was essentially telling him to investigate one of his students? And according to Jiraiya, his favourite student at that?

He could help but shake his head, he doubted he would have the resolve to actually do that if the roles were reserved. Man, he truly had some big shoes to fill.

XxX

(A Few Days Later - Kumogakure no Sato)

A really didn't know what to feel about this. The diplomat he had sent to Konoha had come back faster than anticipated and white as a sheet to tell him that his rival in speed would reply to his demand of compensation for the death of Kurasawa Endo by the end of the week by giving them a Hyuuga Main House body.

Yes, he had assigned the mission and a small part of him had felt that it was rather underhanded, but then again, ninjas mostly dealt with such things. It had failed badly, even with all the elaborate planning and preparations they had set.

To save face to the rest of the world so that they didn't look like fools, he had taken to playing ignorant of the entire situation and demand compensation for the murder of one of their shinobi by Konoha's hands for no reason as far as they saw it.

He knew full well that Konoha was still reeling, although to a lesser extent, to the Kyuubi attack that had occurred four years ago whilst they were recovering from the Third Shinobi War. Stunting their recovery even more.

He would confidently say that in a numbers game, Kumo outnumbered Konoha. But then again, in all the wars that village had fought in, it had been out-numbered in one way or another. And they always came out on top.

It was beyond him to understand how they continued to do that. It was rather vexing. It essentially said to everybody else that Konoha ninjas were better than the other villages members, since numbers didn't mean anything to them.

A knock on the door brought him out of his thoughts, "Enter." His voice boomed, even though he was speaking rather quietly in his modest standards.

The door opened and in came in his right-hand man Darui, "Yo boss." He drawled out in greeting with one hand and the other holding a scroll.

Darui was a fairly tall, dark-skinned young man with shaggy white hair that covered one of his lazy looking eyes. He wore a dark-coloured, high-collared, sleeveless uniform with baggy pants and black sandals. He had tattoos that red 'Water' and 'Lightning' on his shoulders and on his back, a wicked looking cleaver like blade.

"Darui," A greeted, "What are you doing here?"

The man shrugged as he held up the scroll, "This came from Konoha."

That immediately caught A's attention who held out a hand for the scroll. The lazy looking ninja merely threw the scroll into the man's hand. A immediately opened the scroll expecting it to be the reply to their demand before his eyes widened and he threw away the scroll and immediately took to his feet, lightning surging over his body, "Raiton no Yoroi (Lightning Release Armour)!"

Darui blinked in confusion as to why his kage had just randomly activated his vaunted jutsu before he noticed that in the room was another figure...who hadn't been there before, and he had yellow hair and blue eyes.

He quickly reacted and took out his cleaver blade prepared for a fight. He was sure every ninja worth a damn had felt A's sudden chakra spike and was heading towards here in a hurry.

A narrowed his eyes at the new person in the office, "Namikaze…"

Minato looked around with a rather calm look on his face, "A." He greeted in return, "Haven't seen you in a while."

* * *

><p><span>Stats<span>

Kumo Ninja

A

Ninjutsu: 5

Taijutsu: 5

Genjutsu: 3

Intelligence: 3.5

Strength: 5

Speed: 5

Stamina: 5

Hand Seals: 3.5

Total: 35

* * *

><p><strong>Ooooohhhh, the two fastest men in the world meet face to face for the first time in a while. Why is Minato in Kumo? What is he doing there? Find out, in the next chapter of Memoirs of a Hokage! Coming next week...or something!<strong>

**I have to say, this whole Orochimaru/Hyuuga Affair thing is lasting longer than I thought it would, *shrugs* Oh well.**

**Darui's stats will come far later in the story when he makes his reappearance when he's older. I came to the conclusion that he's probably from the same generation as Kakashi and rather than continue coming up with stats left right and centre, I'll do it when he's reached his full potential so to speak.**

**Oh yeah, leave a review. Tell me what I can do to improve the story and all that.**

**Raiden out.**


	5. Snakes In The Grass

**UzumakiKirofu: Yeah...you're going to have to wait a while for pairings to appear.**

**Disclaimer: It's a pity but I don't own Naruto.**

* * *

><p><strong><span>Chapter 5 - Snakes In The Grass<span>**

Someone could have said that the tension inside the Raikage's office was rather palpable. And not many would have disagreed with that.

A stood, lightning surging all-over his body, staring or glaring, depending on who was asked, at the only known man in the world faster than him.

Namikaze Minato.

The Yondaime Hokage of Konoha.

"Namikaze," A began tersely, "What are you doing in my office? Better yet, what are you doing in my country?"

Minato stopped looking around, having noted what he wanted to know about his position, to face A, "What? I can't come and visit the country? I hear Kumo is beautiful around this time of year." He lightly joked.

A wasn't biting, "Your presence here can be misconstrued as an act of war."

Minato shrugged, "Well, depending on how this little meeting of ours end, war it is then." He pointed to a free chair, "Do you mind if I take a seat?" He didn't know how long this meeting was going to be, so why not make himself comfortable whilst he was at it.

A just looked at the rather brazen question from the Yondaime, "You're in the middle of a potentially hostile village," In the office of the village leader himself no less, "Why are you so calm?"

"Because I mean no harm." Minato replied coolly, "Really, I don't mean any harm at all. I'm just here to talk."

A looked at Minato trying to sense any sort of mal intent from the blonde before deactivating his jutsu and taking a seat for himself. He gestured towards a chair. Minato acknowledged the chair and took the seat for himself.

Sensing that things have calmed down significantly in the room, Darui slowly, albeit reluctantly sheathed his sword.

"Darui."

The call out to him startled him and he turned to look at the man who called him, "Yes boss?"

"I'm sure there's going to be questions asked. Go answer them and don't let us be disturbed."

Darui blinked before nodding his head slowly, "Yes boss." He didn't want to leave his village leader alone with such a powerful and dangerous person but orders were orders, 'And the boss can take care of himself.' And to be on the safe side too, he will probably be standing outside along with a bunch of other Kumo ninja.

A's eyes never came off Minato's eyes, even when he was talking to Darui. When the door closed shut behind the young jounin, the Raikage decided to speak again, "So you came here to talk, talk."

Minato laughed rather sheepishly. A was just like how he remembered him. Still as physically imposing as he last saw him several years ago...or did he just get bigger? Well, judging from the various weights around the room, he had probably gotten bigger.

"Well," Minato began as he tried to think of which direction was best to go with in the coming conversation, "It's the end of the week."

"What of it?"

"I told your diplomat that you'll get your reply at the end of the week."

At that, realisation sorry came to A's face as he remembered his diplomat to Konoha informing that Konoha would have a reply for their demands by week's end.

A slowly leaned back into his chair, "Most people would have, I don't know, sent a message in advance of their impending arrival." He narrowed his dark eyes at the man, "Not send a scroll marked with a formula for their teleportation jutsu."

Minato just gave him a rather uncaring shrug, "Well, I thought it would be best that I gave you the reply personally."

"Go on then." A said, "What's the answer towards our demands for compensation for the murder of our Shinobi Gashira, Kurasawa Endo then?"

A had a feeling that something was up. He didn't know why, but he just got that feeling. His suspicion came from the point of view of why would a village leader come all the way out here to agree to something that he would have felt aggrieved by.

Minato just smiled brightly at A, eyes closed and all, "Yeah, we're not going to be agreeing to any form of compensation towards you when you were the ones in the wrong."

"I had a feeling you would say that." A remarked offhandedly, not really at all surprised by the reply, "Then our two villages will go to war then for your act."

Minato held out his hand with four fingers visible, "Five actually."

A blinked in confusion, "Five what?"

"Your statement, you said our two villages will be at war." Minato reminded his fellow blonde, "That's rather wrong. It's actually five villages that will be at war."

Four villages? What was he talking about? This incident only involved their Konoha and Kumo, no other villages whatsoever, "What do you mean four? Last time I checked, Konoha and Kumo only counted as two villages."

Minato just smiled evenly as he relaxed in his chair, "That's rather true." He admitted freely, "See, unlike Kumo, we have these things called 'allies', you don't." A's brows narrowed as he started seeing what Minato was saying, "Instead of being one versus one in the war, it would be one versus four." Minato continued to say, smile still on his face, "I don't know about you, but those don't sound like very good odds."

A growled lightly, "It doesn't matter about the odds. Kumo would prevail, like any other encounter we have had. Kumo is strong!"

"Then why did Konoha win pretty much every war then?" Minato innocently asked, "It doesn't matter if you're strong or have one of the largest standing ninja force in the world. Even by yourself, you wouldn't be able to fend off against three villages."

A growled some more before smirking, "I'm well aware of Konoha's allies. What makes you think that Suna and Taki would come to your aid when they're still recovering from the last war."

"You're also forgetting Kusa." Minato pointed out, "Ever since we were so kind in helping them be liberated from Iwa, Kusa has become rather friendly with us and wouldn't mind helping us out." During the Third Shinobi War, Kusagakure had been invaded by Iwagakure and was then used as a staging point to try and invade Konoha. That didn't work out so well for them as they were soon repelled out of the country, "And if you're wondering about Suna, they won't have to send large amount of their ninja to our aid, all they have do is supply a battalion or two and I'm sure our numbers would become even or even surpass yours."

By now, A had leaned forward on his desk and propped his elbows on his desk and hands clenched together, "Kumo would still fight and win."

Minato slowly nodded, "Yeah, but the war would be much more difficult for you." A moved to speak again, but was cut-off by Minato who hadn't finished speaking, "And if you're going to say something about getting your own allies, remember, the only two other available candidates to aid you would be Iwa and Kiri and well…" He trailed off with a shrug to finish his answer.

Reason being that Kiri was currently embroiled in a civil war. So as far as they were concerned, they couldn't really careless about the outside world until they had sorted out their own internal issues they were handling.

And Iwa might as well have been an unspoken taboo for Kumo. The reason for that being extremely personal to the village. Iwa had intentionally or not been involved in the death in the greatest Raikage Kumo had ever had.

Minato was rather positive that there was lingering animosity for the village amongst the villagers. So it would have been safe to assume that no-one would even broach the subject of asking for aid from that particular village.

'If one person did say that, they're probably going to lose their career in its entirety.' The blonde Hokage mused to himself mentally.

"So what?" A said slowly, the finely wooden desk cracking from the pressure he was putting on it, "You're asking us to just turn the other cheek about this and forget it?"

Minato nodded, "Pretty much yeah." He answered rather simply, "You started this whole thing when you tried to kidnap a Hyuuga for whatever designs you wanted her." Probably not the most of pleasant designs now that he thought about it, "At least if you just drop the whole issue, a war would be prevented and you would come out of it the bigger man."

A scoffed. Them coming out of this entire issue being the bigger man by dropping the subject? As far as he was concerned, that would show that Kumo came out of weak since they had been forced to drop the issue.

"How do you want to be seen in the future?"

A looked at Minato with a bewildered expression, "What are you talking about Namikaze?"

Minato sighed as he crossed one leg over the other, "I'm asking how do you want to be seen in the future?"

The future? What was he talking about the future for, "If you're you're going to say something, say it." He hated the types of people who just didn't speak their mind.

Minato sighed, "I'm asking whether you want to be known as the Raikage who went to war over something the rest of the world so as their own fault or the Raikage who was wise enough to know when they were in the wrong and didn't start a meaningless war and thousands of deaths over such a thing."

This was Minato's last gambit and the third option he had come up with after thinking it over. He was sure even if he had brought up the fact that Taki, Suna and Kusa would come to their aid, Kumo would have still nonetheless thought those odds were with them and continued on their path for a fight regardless of the odds of victory.

When he had come here, his entire gambit was based on trying to strong arm A into seeing that fighting a war against so many villages wouldn't be the smartest thing to do at the moment...even though he was rather sure Suna would send the bare-minimum of ninja to help Konoha, even though Konoha had managed to help them fight off Iwa after they had tried to invade their country.

'But then again, the Yondaime is a rather pragmatic and cold fellow.' The new Kazekage wouldn't weaken his country more than it was already by sending more of his shinobi to aid a foreign nation. And even if he did, he was cold enough to send the ones that had the least amount of value in the overall scheme of things, in other words, cannon fodder.

And another thing would be apart from a piece of paper, why would he intentionally help a rival village that was steadily beginning to see business being send their way from the Daimyo of his own country?

'Speaking of that, I should probably divert some of those missions back towards Suna's way...and find a way to strengthen our alliance in some form or way…' But that would be taken care off later after he had probably stopped an impending conflict of some sort.

A mulled everything that he had heard over the period of this entire meeting before locking eyes with his cerulean blue eyed rival, "We have the Nibi and Hachibi." And out of the two, the Hachibi jinchuuriki was widely considered to be right there with Yagura of Kiri as the most dangerous of the jinchuuriki.

"We have the Kyuubi."

A just smirked at that, "Yes, and about that, your jinchuurikis have never been recorded to use the power of the Kyuubi." Which was strange. The other villages freely trained their jinchuurikis to use the power of the biju. Apparently, Konoha wasn't aware of this norm since not even once had there been reports of the oppressive chakra the Kyuubi omitted when being used in battle, "And the Suna jinchuuriki is nothing more than a child." Well, that's what reports they've been receiving said.

"Okay, I'll give you that." Minato admitted, "But we also happen to have the Uchiha clan, me, Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and the Sandaime Hokage. I'm sure you know what that list means."

And A did know what that list meant. It meant that Konoha had ninja that could, if called upon could go against a biju if required. And that wasn't even including the Yondaime Kazekage of Suna in that conversation too.

A rueful chuckle escaped A's lips, "So what essentially you're saying is that we're rather screwed no matter how you look at it."

"If that's how you want to see it."

A pregnant silence went through the room. None of the two kage's spoke to each other and instead just looked at each other, face's completely and utterly calm, not showing any sort of emotion to each other in the slightest.

Eventually, the silence was broken by one man, "Leave."

Minato merely nodded and disappeared from the room, leaving no trace or presence in it as if he didn't exist. A noted that the scroll that he had marked had immediately caught fire and incinerated itself.

The door to the office opened and in stepped Darui, along with two other ninjas, "Boss, what happened?"

A merely turned his chair to look out the window and into Kumo. He didn't answer the question and instead just stated something that occasionally went through his head, "Sometimes, I really hate that guy."

The Kumo ninjas just looked at each other in confusion, the same question going through their minds, 'Does he mean the Yellow Flash?' And if he did, what did he do exactly? But only A would know.

XxX

(Konohagakure no Sato - Namikaze Home)

Minato reappeared in his study, seating on the leather chair like he had been before he had used the Hiraishin mark he had placed on the scroll to teleport to the Raikage's office.

He mulled over the ending of his talks with the Raikage and wasn't sure if it had ended in a way that he liked or not. He didn't know if his bid to try and show that fighting Konoha wasn't the best idea to A worked or not. He would have have to wait and find out.

He knew one thing for sure, when the council found out about this, he would certainly gain their approval and even a little bit of respect from Danzo. He didn't know how to feel about that exactly.

And with that thought done, he turned his attention to another that he had been forced to think about by A's declaration of the fact they had the Nibi and Hachibi. He had been avoiding it for the past four years, but he realised it was probably about time that he started actually training himself in the chakra of the Kyuubi. Well, the half he held anyway.

'But I'm going to need a specially built place for that.' He was rather sure that training in the Kyuubi's chakra wasn't going to be easy. The being was the embodiment of hate and anger. He wondered how much of that hate and anger he could deal with, not even counting the fact that he was and always had been a calm person at heart, 'I'm going to need Jiraya-sensei's help on this.'

A had been right on the money on the whole Kyuubi thing. They had never trained their jinchuuriki in how to use their powers. Not even once. The first Konoha jinchuuriki, Uzumaki Mito didn't need to train how to use it, she was strong enough as she was with her mastery in fuuinjutsu among other things.

The same could be said about Kushina, even though her chakra gave her the ability to just naturally subdue the Kyuubi with her chains and use its chakra somewhat freely. But she never actually did, because she was good at what did.

'I'm also going to have to train Naruto in the future in the use of the fox's chakra won't I?' The Kyuubi's chakra could prove to be vital in his survival against future foes, most likely these Akatsuki Jiraiya had told him about.

Minato sighed as he relaxed in his chair, right now all he wanted to do was relax. Who knew how many chances in the future could he get to relax nowadays? Especially with Kumo either going to war with them or not.

It was then that he realised something. Something that he had missed due to the fact that he had been completely and utterly been lost in his thoughts. That inside his personal study in his home, there had been someone else.

"...Naruto?" He called out, startling the boy who hadn't noticed his father's presence in the room.

The young blonde immediately got to his feet from the ground where he had made his seat, "Dad!" He called out in shock, "When did you come in?"

"Just now." Minato replied as he eyed his sign. How did Naruto get into his office, there was a lock and a seal on that door, "How did you get inside here?"

Naruto squinted his eyes, "I saw the door was open and went inside."

...The door was open? Did he forget to close it after coming in? He probably did. He never locked the study door when he was at home, especially with a young child in the house at that, "Oh right." He then noticed a book in his son's' hand, which was strange since there wasn't any type of book in here that would catch Naruto's attention, "So what are you reading?"

Naruto blinked and held up the book, "This picture book!" He declared brightly, completely missing his father losing a touch of colour to his face. The blonde frowned slightly as he brought down the book and glared at it, "Although its not really a picture book. There's loads and loads of words that I don't understand, and the pictures don't make any sense."

He flicked some pages until coming to a stop on one page and quickly making his way to his father, "Like here!" He said as he pointed to a picture on one page that had a man and a woman...with the woman kneeling in front of the man, "I don't get this one. What is it supposed to be about? What is she doing?"

Faster than Naruto could see, the book was snatched from Naruto's hands and was in Minato's, "Oh, it's grown-up stuff." He said, trying to laugh it off, rather weakly.

"Aww!" Naruto whined, "But I want to know!"

"Maybe when you're older." Minato wasn't a pervert. He just liked reading his sensei's books because they were rather amusing, 'And on that note, I should put the rest of the other books way out of reach.'

Naruto stamped his foot on the floor, crossed his arms childishly and pouted, "You always say that!" Really, why couldn't he know what they were doing? From the few words he could understand when he read the book, apparently it was a good thing.

Deciding to quickly change the subject, Minato got up from his chair and lead Naruto to the back, "How about some training instead?"

And just like that, whatever strope Naruto was having about being told he was too young for something again, he completely forgot about it in favour of some training, "Yey! I'll get you back for last time!"

Minato let out a silent mental thank you to whatever deity that was willing to listen. He definitely wasn't going to have that conversation with his son was, older, _way _older.

"You'll have to hit me first."

XxX

(4 Years Later)

It had been four years since the event that had been masked as the Hyuuga Affair by both Konoha and Kumo officials. After coming back from his impromptu meeting with the Raikage, Minato had immediately gone and summoned his jounin commander and had ordered him to get every ninja in the village ready and aware of an impending conflict.

Shikaku had been confused as to why until Minato had explained the situation to him, and had done what was asked of him after getting the lay of the hand. The Nara clan head couldn't help but comment what he had done was extremely risky.

Minato had readily agreed to that, but felt that he didn't have a choice. The two options handed to him by the council would have more than likely resulted in the same outcome nonetheless. So he had eventually come up with a third option and he had felt that was the best option to go with.

Of course, his council had been made aware of his gambit and as he had expected, three out of four of them wholeheartedly approved, although it was difficult to tell with Danzo, and Hiruzen had understood what he had done. Even if he felt like it could have been handled differently.

As the man himself had said, '_Leaders might follow the same ideology and think along the same lines, but that doesn't mean they would do everything in the same manner that another would. We are two perfect examples, we follow the Will of Fire with our entire being, yet we handled the situation differently. Don't feel as if you need my approval in everything you do. It's your turn to lead the village, I merely have an advisory role.'_

And like how Minato had predicted, Hiashi had been ready to sacrifice himself if it meant to stop a pending conflict with Kumo. Minato didn't allow such a thing, even when Hiashi's father and twin brother had told him that Hizashi was going to sacrifice himself and go in his brother's place.

Minato had actually forbade that from happening and told him that the matter involved the entire village and thus they didn't get a choice in the matter. Therefore, no-one was sacrificing themselves under his watch for doing the right thing.

After that, it had been a tense few months throughout the village as the people who knew the situation waited for some sort response from Kumo. Those tense months continued until it became a year, and they still hadn't seen any sort of movement from Kumo that showed they were going to fight them to try and preserve their pride or the likes.

Eventually, it became more than years and by then, it wasn't feasible to start a conflict with Konoha. Whilst they had been taking their time, working out the merits and demerits of warring against Konoha, Suna, Kusa and Taki combined, Iwa had somehow managed recover to their full power from the war.

And with that, war with Konoha became less likely even if Iwa's reemergence meant that Kusa, Taki and Suna couldn't direct sizeable forces towards Konoha's aid, Iwa was opportunistic. Especially with Oonoki as its leader.

If Kumo had attacked Konoha, Iwa would have attacked Kumo. Minato reasoned because it was embarrassing for them to have had an army of 10,000 men stopped by a single man that an entire 1,000 men defeated by himself.

So essentially, Minato had somehow managed to bluff another war from occurring. Something Jiraiya had laughed his ass off at and still does at times.

With that over and done with, after war became less and less likely to occur, Minato had turned his full attention to the disappearances and Danzo's Mokuton using agent. As the Hokage sat in his office, his thoughts couldn't help but darken when he remembered about the mastermind behind the disappearances.

(_Flashback)_

_The disappearances had become more frequent and it seemed whoever was actually masterminding them was making the Uchiha clan their top target for victims. This was slowly driving the clan mad. They thought that the disappearances were orchestrated by the village._

_Wanting to assuade such things, Minato had personally made Fugaku head of the investigation into the disappearances, to show that the village had nothing to do with them at all._

_Apparently, Minato's appointment of Fugaku was a stroke of genius on his part as this had resulted in them getting a lead on the disappearances. One of the victims had managed to leave some sort of trail behind as they taken._

_Minato was at first skeptical about this. Whoever had been in charge of these kidnappings had been careful, even after four years. Therefore the thought of them suddenly slipping up was suspicious as all hell to him. Even if others told him that the kidnapper had gotten himself to confident to keep himself in check._

_Nonetheless, a lead was a lead and Minato had personally lead the team to confront the kidnapper, along with Fugaku of course. If he hadn't brought the rather prideful man, Minato had been sure a fuss would have been made._

_He didn't want a fuss, and he thought that Fugaku deserved the credit for this entire scenario, even if he had his minor misgivings about the sudden turn of events in this case._

_And thus, a team compromised of himself, Fugaku, Kakashi, and several other Anbu followed the trail which lead to the outskirts of Konoha. It soon came to a halt to an old, abandoned lumber mill._

_It was good plan on him to bring Kakashi and Fugaku on his part since their Sharingan had noted a genjutsu placed inside the mill to cover the basement door. After entering the basement, Minato had noticed security seals on another door and had managed to deactivate them and his suspicions of Orochimaru had been set in stone._

_The way the seals were wrote had the tell tale signs of Orochimaru's handiwork all over them. He knew for sure the Sandaime was going to be hurt by this. He had viewed his former students like his own children and they all had a place in his heart._

_After entering the the next segment of the building, they had been disgusted by what they had seen. It was a laboratory. All over the place, there were bodies of what they had assumed were the kidnapped victims._

_Minato looked around the place with a frown on his face before walking to one of the bodies. He checked it over and noticed the physical features, 'An Uchiha probably.' The Hokage noted due to the dark hair and skin tone, 'His eyes are gone...' He noted with some alarm as he opened his eyelids to see empty sockets._

_He walked away from the body, "Split into your respective groups and search the complex. Be wary of any traps that might have been set. Kakashi, you're with me."_

_The ninjas present acknowledged their orders and split off as they headed in different directions. Minato signalled with his head for Kakashi to follow him which the young Anbu did as they headed deeper into the underground complex._

_They had been walking in silence ever since they split off, "...You know who did this don't you?" Kakashi asked slowly as he followed behind his sensei, eyes alert for any inkling of trouble._

_Minato nodded rather tersely, "Unfortunately yes."_

"_Who is it?"_

"_Orochimaru." No -_san _suffix for the sannin simply because of the things he was finding here. Whoever was capable of doing the things in this very complex didn't deserve his respect._

_Kakashi looked wide-eyed at his sensei, "Orochimaru-sama?" He repeated in shock, scarcely believing that one of the sannin was actually capable of doing something like this, "But why?"_

_Minato shrugged, "We'll learn soon enough."_

_Kakashi just looked at his sensei's back, "We're heading towards where he is aren't we?"_

"_Yes." Minato had sensed the sannin's chakra the moment that he had entered the building and was currently heading in the direction he had sensed him, "Kakashi, I want you to act as strictly support. If you see an opening, take it." Orochimaru was someone beyond Kakashi's level, no matter how good he was. Kakashi had potential, but he just wasn't Kage-level yet._

_And Orochimaru was._

_Kakashi could have argued at that, but he could tell from the tone of his sensei that this wasn't up for debate, "Yessir."_

_After that, they walked in silence as they continued to follow a dark corridor illuminated by candles that were evenly spread out, passing various doors that held some sort of horror that Orochimaru probably had been experimenting on._

_Eventually, they came to the end of the hallway as it branched off to the left and right, but in front of them was a rather large double door. In a split second, the doors were sent flying from its hinges thanks to a Rasengan from Minato._

"_Kukuku," Orochimaru's laughter rang out, "I was wondering when you were going to make your appearance Minato-kun." His yellow, snake-like eyes glinting in the dark._

_Minato narrowed his eyes ever so slightly, "Orochimaru…" He said slowly, "You're under arrest."_

"_Wha, no -san? I'm hurt." Orochimaru jested with mock hurt in his tone, "I thought you were a respectable little boy unlike that fool of your sensei."_

_Minato held out a hand were a ball of energy formed in a split second, "You lost whatever respect I held for you for the actions you have done." Minato replied succinctly, "And as I said before, you're under arrest. Don't make this any harder on yourself." _

"_Hmm…" Orochimaru hummed as he tapped his cheek in playful thought, "What about...no?" He suggested to the blonde Hokage._

_Minato sighed, "Is that your answer?" Orochimaru, a grin still on his face merely nodded, "Fine then."_

_Minato immediately appeared in front of Orochimaru in a shunshin and drove his Rasengan into the man. Orochimaru's maw opened widely before he literally shedded his skin as a newly unharmed Orochimaru shot out of the mouth towards the door where Kakashi stood at the ready._

_The snake sannin's lower body was like that of a snake as he speedily slithered across the ground. He managed to avoid a slash from Kakashi and sped down one of the hallways, at a speed that made him out to be nothing more than a blur._

_He didn't need to look behind him to know that Minato was right on his heels. Looking back would have slowed him down enough for Minato quickly gain in him, 'A foot race is out of the question.' He thought as he turned another corner, 'He would catch me sooner or later.' He had to find a way to lose him in some manner._

_Orochimaru was confident of his abilities and onto the knowledge that very few people in the world probably had enough power to best him in combat. But he erred to the side of caution against Minato simply because of one reason; One didn't just fight the man known as the Yellow Flash without having one hell of a brilliant plan in mind, it was just impossible. No matter how powerful you were. It would more than likely end in a violent death that involved his tailor made Rasengan in some way._

_Although he hadn't shown it with his pleasant exchange with Minato, but he had been caught off guard completely by the arrival of the Hokage and company. If it wasn't for a security seal he had placed on the entrance, he would have never known about them._

'_But how did they find my laboratory?' He didn't at all leave any sort of clues or tracks to lead them to it, so how did they find out? He didn't have to think long before an answer came to mind, '...Danzo.' The fact that he was rather surprised it took it this long for the man to betray him showed how little faith he held in their partnership, 'Oh well, I was going to leave sooner or later anyway.'_

_A feeling honed from years of life and death situations over the span of four decades told Orochimaru to immediately move from his position as quick as he could. Good thing he did too, either wise he would have found himself pierced by a spear of lightning, "__Raiton: Gian (Lightning Release: False Darkness)__!"_

"_My my," Orochimaru let out playfully, ignoring the fact that he had nearly been killed, "That was rather close wasn't it?" He humored the chasing Hokage._

"_I guess." Minato answered as he moved to catch-up, with the two nothing more than blurs as they raced through the corridor, "I was never much for ranged jutsu and all that." He was more of the type to get in close and finishing the fight before it started._

"_It's a good thing that all jutsu aren't tailor made for ranged combat isn't it? __Doton: Iwayado Kuzushi (Earth Release: Rock Lodging Destruction)__!" The underground corridor shook slightly before the ceiling started to collapse on itself, Minato right underneath it, "It was a pleasure Minato-kun!" Orochimaru remarked offhandedly as he raced his own jutsu to the exit, having set it off knowing that he had to affect the entire corridor if he barely wanted to impede his yellow haired opponent._

_Orochimaru shot out of an emergency exit, clothes having various dirt marks on them, but that was to expected. At least he wasn't crushed to death. He glanced back at the exit that was now blocked by boulders of various sizes, 'That wouldn't have killed him. He probably teleported to a Hiraishin marker in safety.'_

"_That was close."_

_Orochimaru turned his head in shock towards to the left of him to see Minato in front of him several yards away, "...You're fast, but you're not that fast."_

_Minato nodded, "I know. Good thing I had several of my clones mark the area around the lumbermill in a 10 mile radius isn't it?" He simply dropped to the ground below from the tree branch he was standing on, "Who knew one of them had marked an area so close to an exit."_

_Orochimaru just stared at him with a blank look before chuckling to himself in amusement, "Well, you never cease to amaze do you Minato-kun?"_

"_Jiraiya-sensei say's I got it from him, personally, I think it was inherent." He flipped his kunai and held it in reverse grip, "And now I'll be putting you down." He finished with a look of calm seriousness and determination._

_A nervous bead of sweat formed on Orochimaru's forehead, "You say that as if I'm some common run of the mill shinobi, you forget I'm one of the sannin."_

"_I didn't forget. I know how dangerous you are Orochimaru. I've been on missions with you. I know full well how you act." Minato pointed out, "And Jiraiya-sensei was kind enough to constantly complain about your times together back in the day. I know nearly everything you are capable off. I don't know if you can say the same about me."_

_The easy grin on Orochimaru's face hid his true thoughts on the matter. Minato was correct in how little information he had about how Minato fought. He might have worked with him, but he had never seen enough of him in a fight to make accurate observations on. Simply because Minato's fights ended not long after they began._

_All he had come to assume was simply broad knowledge that anybody could come up with due to his signature jutsu, that Minato preferred close combat than anything else. _

_And Orochimaru knew how dangerous that was. If he got in close and marked you, then the fight was, at best, already over. The best course of action was to keep him as far away as possible._

_A breeze of wind rolled through the area before Minato blurred from sight and Orochimaru whipped his hand around in retaliation and from his sleeves several snakes shot out, ready to sink their poisonous fangs into flesh, "__Sen'eijashu (Hidden Shadow Snake Hands)__!" _

_The snakes didn't get far as they were eviscerated in quick succession by Minato, spilling blood and gore from the jutsu before appearing in front of the snake sannin, Rasengan at the ready before having to abort from hitting Orochimaru to instead direct his attention to a snake bursting from the ground with a sword coming out of its mouth._

_Orochimaru used that little lapse in attention he got from Minato to whip out his other hand and sent several snakes at him, only for Minato to use the Hiraishin to avoid the jutsu. Orochimaru turned his attention back to the tree that Minato had appeared in before feeling a crushing kick into his back._

_The snake sannin rolled to a halt and glared back, 'When did he-?' He then noticed that the entire time that Minato had been fighting against him, he had used a normal kunai, and by his feet was a Hiraishin kunai, 'He dropped the Hiraishin kunai and used a normal kunai instead...'_

_Minato kicked up his trademark, three-pronged kunai into his hands before before throwing it at Orochimaru who quickly moved himself away from its intended trajectory. _

"_Kunai Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Kunai Shadow Clone Jutsu)__!"_

_Orochimaru's eyes widened as one kunai became a hundred, all hurtling towards him. If they landed anywhere near him, he didn't stand a chance. The snake sannin blurred through hand signs, "__Futon: Daitoppa (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)__!"_

_A gale of wind emanated from Orochimaru's mouth as he blew it towards the kunais. Before the wind hit the kunai's Minato appeared beside one, grabbed it and took to higher ground to avoid the gale of wind, lest he be blown away and went through his own hand seals, "__Katon: Zukokku (Fire Release: Intelligent Hard Work)__!" Minato fired a small fire-ball from his mouth down at Orochimaru._

_Quickly getting over his initial surprise at seeing Minato seemingly jump to a moving kunai, Orochimaru got on his proverbial bike to out-run what was going to come next from the particular jutsu Minato had just used. _

_When the fireball hit the ground, a giant firestorm erupted at the point of contact, that caused destruction in the surrounding area and spread outwards._

_Minato landed on the charred remains of his jutsu as he scoped the surroundings for Orochimaru, 'That definitely wasn't enough to kill him.'_

_And he was proven correct just a few moments later, "I have to say Minato-kun," Orochimaru's voice rang out through the area through the use of chakra, "I wasn't aware that you could teleport yourself to a moving Hiraishin kunai, I don't think the Nidaime could pull-off such a feat himself. You're as much a genius as you are lauded to be." _

_Minato looked around, his expression unchanging from its previous serious calmness, "Thanks for the praise I guess."_

"_Oh don't be humble." Orochimaru remarked, "But as much as I would love to continue our little spat, I have things to do, you understand right?"_

_Minato immediately realised the error of his way by using such a large scale ninjutsu; it gave a momentary chance for Orochimaru to escape. He immediately dropped to the ground and placed his index finger on the ground and tried to sense for Orochimaru only to get nothing other than the quickly enclosing ninja he had brought with him._

"_Dammit," He cursed underneath his breath, "He escaped." Minato got the feeling that Orochimaru was going to be a rather large pain in the rear in the future. But at least the citizens wouldn't now be living in fear of being abducted._

_(End of Flashback)_

Eventually, news of Orochimaru's betrayal spread throughout the rest of the village as the mastermind behind the abductions. And that news continued onto the other villages although they took this as Konoha now has one out of the three sannin left.

Not that it did anything to stunt Konoha's battle power in the slightest as far as Minato was concerned. During those four years since, Kakashi had made a name for himself throughout the world and along with him were Shunshin no Shisui of the Uchiha clan and Fugaku's very own son, Itachi, widely considered to probably become one of the very best ninja the clan had ever produced, who now one of Minato's most prolific Anbu captains at the age of thirteen.

One might have looked that even though they lost a powerful piece in Orochimaru, in the overall game, they gained three more powerful pieces. And the future looked bright as far as the blonde Hokage was concerned.

Although he had received some rather troubling news from Jiraiya that Orochimaru had gone and somehow become a member of Akatsuki who had been slowly increasing in number. Minato was confident that Orochimaru was one of the few people in the village who knew that Naruto was the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, even without having been told. He would have connected the pieces so to say.

For all he knew, the sannin might have already told the Akatsuki group who the holder of the Kyuubi was, well one of the holders anyway.

'Well, at least Naruto has been developing rather well over the years.' Minato mused as he relaxed in his chair. Naruto had started the academy only a few months ago, 'I wonder how he's doing.'

XxX

(Konoha Academy)

Umino Iruka, a fairly young chunin instructor in the academy was rather dreading the next few moments. This only was his first year as a teacher at the academy and he had somehow managed to land not only the son of the Hokage in his class, but also the prodigious son of the head of the Uchiha clan.

'Shouldn't a more experience teacher have got this class?' He mentally weeped to himself. But that wasn't why he was dreading the next few moments. He might have been new, but he was a professional, and he treated both like any other student under him, what he dreaded was that it was currently their physical examinations e.g. taijutsu spar and weapon throwing exercises and right now, it was the taijutsu phase of the exam, and the next names on the list were Uchiha Sasuke and Namikaze Naruto.

Somehow, those two students had developed some sort of rivalry between each other, the fact that they were the top two male students notwithstanding. Their rivalry had started long before they came here.

He sighed as he braced himself, "Uchiha Sasuke…"

3...

2...

1…

"Kya! It's Sasuke-kun's turn!" Came the various cries from the rather large group of Sasuke's admirers from the side as the young Uchiha coolly walked into the ring, "Sasuke-kun is so cool!" Was the most frequent cry of adulation among various others.

Iruka cleared his throat to gain the attention of the class once more, "Versus Namikaze Naruto."

At that, Sasuke's eyes immediately snapped open as he looked at Naruto, looking far more lively than he had before. Naruto on the other hand just looked around with a look of utter displeasure, "Hey! Where's my group of girls screaming out my name?"

Naruto had grown to be of average height for his age. His hair slightly longer with time itself and wore an orange shirt with blue shorts and sandals.

Behind him, a young boy with fang-like facial features chuckled, "Why would you have a group of girls screaming your name? You aren't cool!"

"Oh shut up Kiba!" Naruto snapped at the boy with the feral features, glaring at him, "Remind me again who's number one?"

"Sasuke is." Came the collective replies from Kiba, Shikamaru and Chouji.

Naruto face faulted before picking himself up, "You guys suck." He mumbled as he made his way towards the ring. He picked himself up soon after and looked at Sasuke, "Ready to get your ass kicked this time Sasuke?"

Sasuke looked at Naruto with a cool smirk adorning his features, "Shouldn't it be you ready to get your ass kicked?"

"Language." Iruka interjected. Really, how did a bunch of eight year olds know such words? "And actually, both of you have fought each other five times and drawn five times." Because their fights tended to get way out of hand and he had to eventually separate themselves from each other.

Naruto turned to look at Iruka with an annoyed expression, "Oh shut-up Iruka-sensei! Start this fight already! Got some ass to kick!"

Sasuke scoffed, "Yours most likely."

Iruka sighed as he looked on, "Alright then, you know the rules, spars are five minutes long, now make the seal of confrontation." Both boys then made a half ram seal with their respective hands, "Then begin!"

No sooner had the word 'begin' escaped Iruka's lips, Naruto was already in motion for a high-kick meant to connect with Sasuke's head. The Uchiha having noted that Naruto was among one of the fastest students in the academy, simply for the sake who his father was, ducked underneath the kick and rolled into a leg sweep.

It caught Naruto and as he fell managed to correct himself to land on his fours in a crouch. He launched himself forward intent on body slamming Sasuke to the ground and then proceed to wail on him until told otherwise.

Naruto managed to catch Sasuke with his body slam but his rival was more than in-tune enough to roll himself out of a crash course with the ground and instead let Naruto take the hit for him.

Sasuke moved to pin Naruto to the ground, but having grown up with a father that would move faster than he could track and react to anything whenever it came to his training, Naruto whipped out a fist and caught Sasuke in the face, forcing him to let go as he stumbled away.

Naruto grinned as he got up, "Ha! Point for me teme!"

Sasuke rubbed his jaw as he looked at Naruto, "The only lucky shot you'll ever get."

"That wasn't luck." Naruto remarked, "That was perfectly calculated actually."

"Aha…" Sasuke remarked as he set himself once more, "Let's see if you can try again." He finished as he taunted Naruto with a 'come hither' motion with his index fingers.

Naruto didn't fall to the taunt but knew very well Sasuke wouldn't attack him unless he had to and thus decided to come at him instead. The two clashed as they battled against each other in a flurry of taijutsu brawls against each others respective styles.

Sasuke's clan style versus Naruto's spur in the moment style that included stuff pilfered from Jiraiya and Minato occasionally thrown in.

In one engagement, Naruto accidentally over-extended himself with a punch that Sasuke spun around to dodge and then proceeded to land a punishing haymaker to the blonde's face. He smirked as he saw Naruto rub his cheek, "I think that's worth two points at least."

"No it doesn't." Naruto argued back, "It's actually worth no points. I didn't even feel it. You hit like a little girl."

At the side, Shikamaru shook his head, "Naruto, if you suck at the trash talk, just shut up and don't say anything." He muttered to himself, but it was loud enough for the surrounding people around him to hear his comment.

Back in the ring, Sasuke was just looking at Naruto blankly, "Wow, that actually cut me really deep to the point that I just want to randomly charge you and beat you down." He said with all the sarcasm he could muster.

"Well then why don't you?"

"Because the spar is over and once more its a draw." Iruka interjected from the side as he clicked the stopwatch to reset it.

Naruto snapped his head in the direction of Iruka, "What, why!? I had him!"

Iruka shook his head as he moved to the center of the ring once more, "You both landed one clean hit on the other. It's a draw as far as I was concerned." He looked between the two ninjas, "Now make the Seal of Reconciliation." The two boys glared at each other, seemingly daring the other to do something, "Seal, _now._" Iruka repeated with authority, forcing both boys to do it.

As he held the seal, Naruto looked at Sasuke, "Just you wait, I'm going to beat you sometime."

"In your dreams dobe." Sasuke remarked as he returned the feeling.

"Alright, you two can go." Iruka said as he looked back to his class, "Okay class, that's it for the day. Remember to train yourself at home and prepare yourselves for the end of term examinations."

"Hai sensei!" Was the collective reply from the class of future shinobi.

As Naruto walked towards his friends, he couldn't help but feel glares cast in his direction. Chouji noted the glares and had to voice a question, "Why are they glaring at Naruto like that?"

Kiba grinned as he answered by giving Naruto hearty pats on the back, "Because he hurt their 'Sasuke-kun' of course! Didn't you know that Chouji?"

"Seriously, it's not fair." Naruto mumbled as he walked with the others, "I mean, I'm the son of the _Hokage_ and I don't have any girls screaming my name or anything," The only time the girls actually screamed his name was when they were yelling at him to stop hurting Sasuke, "What does the teme have that I don't?"

Shikamaru hummed in thought, "Just forget it Naruto. Guys like us aren't just made to be cool."

Naruto, along with Kiba, turned their heads towards the lazy boy, "What the hell do you mean 'guys like us aren't meant to be cool'?" They asked collectively, "I will have you know, I'm plenty cool!" Naruto declared loudly enough for others to hear him.

"Then where's your fanclub of girls then?"

"...You suck Shika…

"Ha! Don't worry about it Naruto," Kiba said as he grinned widely, "Just you wait till I prove how cool I am, I'll try and spread the coolness to you, however hard that would be."

The blonde boy scoffed, "_You? Cool?_ Yeah right." He linked his hands behind his head as they walked down a street with his eyes squinted and a grin on his face, "But when I finally prove that _I'm_ more awesome than the teme, I'll try to give you some. No matter how much of a lost cause you are. Because I care. Because as your future Hokage, I have to care, no matter how hopeless you are." Naruto could just feel the glare he was getting from Kiba and that just made him grin even wider.

"You suck Naruto, you suck." Kiba said, "Just you wait when I bond with my ninken and then we're going to kick your ass."

"Oh yeah, you're getting your dog this week aren't you?"

"_Ninken_." Kiba corrected, stressing the word, "It's not dog, it's ninken."

"I don't really see the difference. It's still a dog isn't it?"

"A dog is just a dog, a ninken is something else. A ninken becomes your inseparable partner for life." Kiba said as he began to explain, seemingly excited by the prospect of getting his life partner, "Whatever a ninja could do, a ninken can do."

"Well, it would be rather embarrassing if it couldn't with the 'nin' part in the name." Shikamaru pointed out as he walked, eyes slightly looking upwards into the sky, 'Man...those are some good clouds.' What an utterly random thought.

Chouji nodded in agreement as he procured a bag of chips from somewhere, "Yeah, really embarrassing."

Kiba's eyebrow twitched in annoyance, "But it's not. It's trained. And I'm going to bond with one and become it's life partner. Awesome right?"

Naruto, still with the same foxy expression on his face looked up into the sky seemingly in thought, "I don't know man. Don't you want a girlfriend when you are older?" He asked, "Whether its a girl or not, I don't think a dog can be counted as a girlfriend." He finished off with a grin on his face.

Kiba smacked him on the back of the head, "We're eight you blonde idiot! We don't think about girls! We think about boys' stuff!"

"Like what?"

Kiba blinked as he tried to think of something, "Like, like, like, eating a worm or something."

"Eww, why would I eat a worm? That doesn't sound healthy."

Shikamaru nodded in agreement, "And troublesome too. You would have to find the worm, and that means digging through mud and dirt and all that stuff, which is just too much effort." And then his mum would nag him about coming home in dirty clothes. He didn't really see the benefits in doing that.

Chouji put several chips into his mouth as he nodded, "Also, I don't think it would taste good anyway." And they probably went fulfilling in any sort. They were really thin and that was it. He doubted he could even fill the longest one he could find and eat...not that he would do that of course.

Kiba gaped at the others, "Oh you guys just suck as friends."

Naruto grinned widely, "That's your opinion, not ours."

XxX

(Hokage's Office)

One of the requirements of a kage and a leader in general was too make friends. And not just any friends, the sort of friends that could come to your aid when your country is in a bit of trouble.

Konoha was strong, but it never killed anyone to be careful did it?

And thus, this was why Minato was just sprucing up a message to be sent to Sunagakure inviting the Kazekage over for talks. Suna and Konoha's relationship had been slowly growing distance with more and more jobs from the Daimyo of Kaze no Kuni directing his missions to Konoha.

Now Minato knew he had a village to look after and couldn't honestly turn the missions away, but Konoha's bottom line was so good to the point that it wouldn't even hurt them a little bit to redirect some of those missions Suna's way. He had figured by doing this, it would help warm up their relations somewhat, but it didn't work out as planned.

The Kazekage seemingly took this in offence because as far as he was concerned, to the rest of the world (even though this was only known to a very select and secretive few) that Konoha was giving the scraps to its allied village. That was damage to Suna's pride as a village and something that had ended up doing the opposite as it cooled down relations at an even quicker rate.

Thus Minato had decided that to stop the piece of paper that showed they were allies from becoming having more worth than the alliance itself, he decided that it was probably best for the two kages to have a seat down and well, talk.

Talk about which was the best way to proceed, since as far as he knew, Suna still needed its alliance with Konoha. It was nowhere near strong enough yet to resist something like Iwa trying to pull a quick one.

And with that thought, Minato summoned a chunin who would relay the message to a messenger hawk that would fly off to Suna. After that, it was just a matter of playing the waiting game to see whether the Kazekage would reply to his offer or not.

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><p><strong>Remember to leave a review!<strong>

**Raiden out!**


	6. Shifting Sands

**HjLostDreams: Yeah...we're delving into God-like territory with what you just said. Time to clarify I guess. See, just because Minato is alive, doesn't automatically translate into genius for Naruto. It's more along the lines that he will be smarter and stronger when he finally graduates from the academy. He'll be as good as Sasuke was when they graduated. I think that's how good he would have been if someone had taken the time to actually, properly teach him, much like how Minato is doing for him, father or not.**

**But this won't be because he's a genius like Sasuke, but along the lines that he's got a big dream and he's willing to work hard for that dream.**

**He will have have some elemental jutsus down by the time he graduates.**

**And I won't go mad on the Rasengans, you won't have to worry about that.**

**The revamping this was a bit too cliche for me, so I decided to just keep it as it is to make for a good base where they can improve from then on. **

**And you'll be surprised for what I have in store for Naruto sensei wise.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, bummer, I would love to own it. Then I wouldn't be stuck in uni, but instead, I would be stuck in all those manga loving babes! Yeaaahhhhhh!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 6 - Shifting Sands<strong>

The heavy downpour of rain that could be heard from outside somewhat suited the nature of the meeting that was currently taking place. Inside a darkened room lit by the ambient lighting from the open doorway to the balcony and strategically placed candles were three individuals sat in a seating arrangement that was shaped like a triangle.

The first figures features were darkened by shadow with the only noticeable features being his spiky hair and strange ripple like eyes that radiated power from the even gaze they held. Like another in the room, he was dressed in a black cloak adorned with red clouds, and dark coloured pants and sandals.

Another figure was the lone female with blue hair, grey coloured eyes with lavender eye shadow and a labret piercing with a purple paper flower in her hair. Like the first, she was also dressed in a black cloak with red clouds.

The last individual in the room was the masked benefactor of the organisation they worked for and the perpetrator behind the Kyuubi incident that had taken place eight years ago. The man sat forward and rested his arms on his knees and linked his hands together

"Konan, Nagato," He began slowly in an even tone, "It's been a while." A couple of years to be exact.

"Madara," The shadowed man with the ripple patterned eyes greeted evenly, "Everything is in order if you came to check up on us. We're nearly at full strength."

They had been steadily gathering members over the past eight years. It wasn't easy finding members that fitted the type of quota that they needed for their organisation. The quota need people of very high skills who were rare to come across the world.

"Oh no, I didn't come here to check up on you Nagato." Madara stated evenly, "I just came to inform you that I have found a few potential recruits."

"And they are?"

Madara merely leaned back in his chair and crossed one leg over the other, "Oh leave those little detail to me."

For his preferred recruit, he still needed for the right conditions to be met. Those conditions were slowly meeting themselves and until then, it would be close to impossible to approach him and try to recruit him to his cause.

His secondary choice though...that was easy enough to understand. He was much like one of their newest recruits Orochimaru, both having something of a god-complex to their mentalities. All he had to do was offer the man the opportunity to gain something that he would needed to achieve his own goal.

"...Is that so?" Nagato said after a pregnant pause. Madara thought of him as nothing more than a pawn of his to use to whatever he whim he wanted. He would play if that is how he viewed him, but until he had got all of the use out of the man, he would properly teach him his place. Until then, he would tolerate him, "Well, until you bring them in, we will be waiting."

"Very well." Madara replied as he began to disappear into a vortex from the eyehole in his mask, "Until next time then." He finished as his form was completely sucked in the vortex like swirl.

"Nagato," For the first time ever since Madara's appearance, the woman spoke, "I don't trust him." She said in reference to Madara.

Nagato merely stood up from his seat and walked towards the balcony, "I know Konan. Neither do I." He said as light revealed his spiky orange hair, pale skin-tone and the various piercings adorning his face, "But he has his uses." He came to a halt just underneath a canopy that protected him from the rain, "And until they're fulfilled, we will take care of him."

His eyes glanced over the village that was eternally under the mercy of the weeping heavens, "Just you wait. This world shall know the true meaning of pain."

XxX

(Konohagakure no Sato - Uchiha District)

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu)!"

Looking out over the Naka River that ran through the heart of the Uchiha District, Sasuke stood panting, his lips slightly tinged as he practiced his clan's coming of age jutsu.

'I nearly had it this time.' The young Uchiha stated as he panted, hands on knees to support him, 'Just one more time.'

After catching his breath and resting some more, Sasuke went through the hand seals for the jutsu once more, but before he could finish it off, a hand stopped him. The startled blonde looked up to see the interloper in his training before his eyes widened, "Itachi-niisan!"

"Sasuke." The older Uchiha greeted with a small smile on his face, "What are you doing?"

Sasuke just blinked at the question his brother asked him. Wasn't it rather obvious as to what he was doing all the way out here? "I'm training of course!"

Itachi sighed gently as he shook his head, "You should know better than to force yourself."

Sasuke looked away somewhat childishly, "I'm not forcing myself." He whined lightly. It was always like this. Whenever Itachi was around, he would lose his cool and act like a child. Something that wasn't befitting an Uchiha.

Itachi shook his head in amusement as he let go of his brother's hand, "You're nearly out of chakra. If you had continued, you could have exhausted your chakra." He then motioned to the area around him, "And no-one comes around here at this time of day. What do you think would have happened?" He finished off as he gave his younger brother a slightly chastising look.

Sasuke tried to face anyone but his older brother, "I would have probably died…" He finished off lightly. He knew what chakra exhaustion was and its effect to the human body. If he had too little chakra, his body would have started shutting down as if trying to conserve what little remaining life energy there was.

Itachi nodded his head, "Exactly." He turned around and indicated with his head for Sasuke to follow him, "Come along now, dinner is nearly ready and mom was getting worried." He finished off as he started to walk away from the bank of the river and back to their home.

Sasuke nodded before quickly rushing to catch up to his older brother. They walked in silence, merely enjoying each other's presence. Soon enough, they started nearing the residential area of the district which was dotted with houses of that followed a traditional japanese design to them.

As they walked, Sasuke kept glancing up at Itachi every now and then, something the older observant ninja didn't miss, "Yes Sasuke?" Itachi asked, trying to prompt his younger brother to tell him what was eating him.

Sasuke jumped slightly in surprise before looking up at Itachi, "Uhm, tomorrow, can you help me with my shurikenjutsu?" He asked. He had seen Itachi train and knew he was really good with that particular art of the ninja. He then blinked as he remembered another thing that he would most likely need his brother's help with, "And also with the Goukakyuu no Jutsu?"

Itachi looked up slightly to the sky, seemingly in thought. Sasuke didn't know how to react though, his brother hadn't tapped him on the head like usual and was seemingly thinking about it. But for all he knew, this could have been a ruse by Itachi to mess with him.

"Well, I don't have any of my ninja duties to attend to tomorrow," Itachi said as he finally spoke, "So I'll help you in your training." He finished as he glanced down at Sasuke with a smile.

Sasuke looked up at Itachi with a large smile on his face. He nodded enthusiastically, "Thank you niisan."

"Don't thank me," Itachi began, "You never know, my training might be difficult." He finished as he tapped his brother in the middle of his forehead.

Sasuke didn't even care that Itachi had done that annoying forehead poke to him. All he cared was that his brother was going to help him train. His smile practically beamed, "I won't disappoint you niisan!" The onyx eyed boy declared.

Itachi merely smiled. There was no point in Sasuke declaring such a thing, there was nothing Sasuke could do that would disappoint him. No matter what, Itachi would always be proud of him.

"Tell me that after we're done training."

XxX

(Later - Naka River Bank)

A sigh rang out as Shisui stood by the bank of the river, idly throwing a small pebble up and down in his hand, "Things have become really complicated." He somewhat mused as he looked to the other side of the river.

Beside him stood Itachi, his hands in his pockets, "They have, haven't they?"

Shisui glanced at his long-time friend as he pulled his arm back, "What's eating you?" He queried as he turned to face the other side of the river again.

"You should know."

"Yeah…" Shisui admitted, "But it helps to talk about it."

"But I don't."

Shisui sighed as he let fly the pebble in his hands and watched it skip across the water, "If you say so." Silence filled the area between the two Uchiha before Shisui spoke again when the pebble reached the other side of the pond, "You know I'm supposed to watch you."

Itachi snapped his head in Shisui's direction in surprise, "...Watch me?" He asked slowly, "What do you mean?"

A wry smirk came across Shisui's face, "You don't need me to tell you that." He crouched down and picked up another pebble, "You're not trusted anymore Itachi."

Itachi looked at Shisui before sighing and turning his attention back to the river, "I'm not really surprised." He admitted. A small smile came across his face, "Well, that explains everything that's been going back home."

Shisui glanced at him in interest, "Hmm?"

Sensing his curiosity in the matter, Itachi decided to go into detail with his statement, "Father has been cutting down the amount of weekly meetings he has with me. And he also has been spending some more time with Sasuke lately."

Shisui would have asked how that last bit of information was strange, but he knew enough that Fugaku was something of a distant father to Sasuke. The Uchiha patriarch had always focused on Itachi and placed very little attention on Sasuke himself.

Shisui threw the pebble in his hand once more, "I guess Fugaku-sama wants to mold Sasuke huh?"

Itachi closed his eyes as he nodded, "Most likely."

The older Uchiha of the two sighed as he linked his hands behind his back, "Urgh, now instead of being an ordinary jounin for the clan, I now have to watch you and probably see if I can join Anbu too."

Which wasn't something out of his capabilities. In fact, before Itachi, he had been invited to the organisation, but had decided it wasn't for him and had kept to the conventional forces instead.

The relations between the clan and the village was deteriorating rapidly. Even though the Yondaime over the years had done everything to try and appease the clan and show that they are a trusted and valued clan of Konoha. The Uchiha clan had slowly been growing distant from the rest of the village due to their perceived feeling that the villagers were suspicious or outright blamed them for the Kyuubi attack eight years ago.

These feelings had grown to the point that treasonous thoughts had crept into the minds of many, including the clan head who was slowly rallying clan members to his cause and eventual goal of a coup d'etat.

"How would it even work anyway?" Shisui mused aloud after thinking it over.

Itachi glanced at him curiously, "How would what work?"

"The coup d'etat the clan is planning." The other Uchiha said, "How would it work, we number in the hundreds and the village numbers in the thousands. I just don't see it."

"An Uchiha with a Sharingan is worth at least two shinobi."

"Uhuh, I still don't like those odds though. I mean, come on, there's over 20,000 ninja in the village alone that aren't affiliated with the clan." Shisui pointed out, still trying to see how a coup was actually feasible with their clan numbers, "And once more, we number in the hundreds. We would get overrun."

Itachi sighed, "You forget that the thought of a coup d'etat has only surfaced just recently. I doubt the technicalities of the coup have been ironed out yet."

"Yeah…" Shisui drawled out, "I'm still not seeing it."

"Whether you see it or not, I will have to inform the Hokage of this." Itachi scowled slightly, "I hope Minato-sama is able to pacify the clan." Even though he had acting to pacify them ever since suspicion fell on them. Itachi was observant enough to know that the Yondaime probably knew more to the Kyuubi incident than him.

He didn't question the man on it simply because he knew any revelations behind the incident was probably top-secret and that only the higher-ups of Konoha knew about it.

'No matter, I will work my way up until I learn of it then.' The Uchiha genius vowed to himself as he enjoyed the quiet summer night with his best friend and surrogate brother.

XxX

(A Few Days Later)

"I really can't believe you." Izumo muttered as he sat in the check-in booth that was positioned right next to the main entrance of Konoha, "We finally get promoted to chunin and you immediately sign us up for gate duty?" That was not what he had seen himself doing when he got promoted. He had expected doing more adventurous stuff that came along with the chunin rank instead of seating in front of a gate and signing in visitors and the likes entering or leaving Konoha.

No matter how 'important' the job was to the safety of Konoha.

Beside him was his partner and best friend, Kotetsu idly relaxing in his seat with his feet propped up on the desk in front of him, "It's gate guarding duty. It's really, really, _really_ important." He drawled out as he raised a hand to cover the yawn he was feeling, "We're the first line of defence for the village. It shows how much we're valued."

"Aha." Izumo stated rather dryly, "Because they would trust two chunins with such an important task?" He asked rhetorically, "I'm pretty sure there's some Anbu stationed somewhere around here and then let's not forget the sentries on the walls too."

Kotetsu just leaned further back into his seat, relaxed smile on his face, "Yeah, so? That means nothing. We're the really important guys in this set-up. We're the ones that check to see if whoever is speaking is who they really say they are."

Izumo just cast a dry look at him, "That is one of the single most stupidest things you have ever said to me." It was if he was forgetting that there was some other people at work who did some of those things he said in a far more active way than them.

Kotetsu didn't respond to the insult at his intelligence and instead merely yawned, "You say stupid, I say wise words of profound wisdom." He then blinked as he turned to the horizon of the gate, "Oh shape up, we have company."

Izumo turned to face what Kotetsu was seeing and saw a small delegation of shinobi coming there way. How did he know they were shinobi? Simply from the way they walked and held themselves.

It was fairly easy for one warrior to notice another warrior due to the way they held themselves from civilians. People like them could never be too relaxed in any situation. There bodies was in one way or form coiled ready turn their attention to anything in case of trouble.

Oh, and another thing was that the person in the front was wearing a white and green robe that was similarly identical to the same robe the Hokage wore on official duties.

Both chunin immediately stood up as a sign of respect to the village leader as himself and his entourage neared the gate.

The Kazekage's entourage consisted of himself and a squad of undescript jounins. Strangely walking slightly behind him was a young girl with dark-green coloured eyes and her hair done up into four pigtails.

Eventually the delegation came to a halt at the gate as they were met by their apparent guide, "Kazekage-dono." One Namikaze Minato greeted amicably, "I'm glad you would make time you would make time to come all the way here. I was more than willing to travel to Suna for these talks." He finished as he held out a hand to be shaken.

The veiled Kazekage took the hand and shook, "No. The last talks were held in our village. I thought this time they should be held in yours to return the courtesy or favour so to speak." He said as he released Minato's hand. He motioned to the girl beside him, "Let me introduce you to my daughter Temari. Temari, greet the Hokage."

The young girl nodded her head as he bowed respectfully at the older ninja, "Greetings Hokage-sama."

Minato laughed somewhat sheepishly, "Oh please, just call me Minato. I'm not really one for such honorifics on myself."

Temari blinked as she looked at the man with the shockingly bright blonde hair, "B-But I can't. That's disrespectful!"

Minato opened his mouth to answer but was beaten to speaking by a voice slightly behind him, "I think I'm to be sick…"

The blonde kage-level ninja then blinked in realisation, "Oh yes, since your arrival was somewhat unexpected," Unexpected as in he didn't receive a single day of arrival from the man, "I was with my son when you arrived." He moved aside to reveal Naruto who had swirls for his eyes and was currently on his fours, "This is Naruto...I sort of forgot he isn't used to fast speeds yet…" He finished of rather wryly.

Eyes turned on the blonde boy who was seemingly trying to catch his breath and surroundings from the rush he had just felt, 'He's around the same age as Gaara.' Temari noted.

'So he's Namikaze's son?' The Kazekage thought as he looked over Naruto, 'He doesn't seem like much...although the same can be said about his father.'

"Dad!" Naruto snapped at his father as he finally managed to catch his bearings, "What was that for? That wasn't nice!" He had never moved that fast in his life and after experiencing it, he didn't feel like ever doing it again. Everything was just a blur for seconds before he suddenly turned up here.

"Oh you know, had to quickly come and do some Hokage stuff."

"Not that lame excuse again!" Naruto snapped some more as he looked up before noticing the other people in front of him, looking on at his interaction with his father. Having grown up around ninjas for the entirety of his life, Naruto noted that these weren't Konoha ninjas and that was cemented even more by the fact that one of them was dressed in those kick-ass clothes his dad occasionally wore every now and then to do some important stuff.

The younger blonde quickly got up to his feet and dusted off his hands on his shorts and walked next to his father. Seeing the 'wind' kanji on the hat of the man in front, Naruto could make a guess to who he was, "Are you the Kazekage?" He asked with squinted eyes.

The man nodded, "Correct. I'm the Yondaime Kazekage of Sunagakure."

"Cool!" Naruto let out with a grin, "You're number four of your village like my old man? That's awesome!" He pointed at himself, "I'm Naruto, future Godaime Hokage of Konoha."

The Kazekage raised an unseen amused eyebrow, "Godaime?"

Naruto nodded his head, "And not just any sort of Hokage, the bestest, strongest and most badass Hokage ever, dattebayo!" He finished off with his verbal tic, his grin seemingly getting wider.

"Dattebayo?" Naruto's attention was attracted to someone he hadn't noticed before, a girl who seemed to be a couple of years older than him, "Is that even a word?" She asked rather skeptically.

Naruto laughed somewhat bashfully, "Eh not really. It's something of a verbal tic of mine. Apparently I got it from my mom or something." He didn't really know how he had managed to get it from his mom. She had died on the day he was born, so there was no way for him to pick it up from her. His dad always said something about it being 'genetic' or something like that...as if he knew what genetic meant.

Minato just chuckled to himself at the interaction before blinking in realisation, "Oh, why don't Naruto here entertain young Temari whilst we take care of the boring stuff?" He suggested to the Kazekage.

"Huh?" Both Naruto and Temari let out dumbly as they looked up to the blonde of the two Yondaime's.

The sharp-eyed Kazekage thought it over before nodding his head in acceptance, "Very well. I leave my daughter in your care Naruto-san."

Naruto blinked before turning to look at Temari and then back to the Kazekage, "Ah okay."

As he began to lead Temari away from the group, the Kazekage called out to her, "Temari," He began, his voice unchanging from its usual cold manner, "Behave yourself."

Temari nodded at her father, "Yes father."

XxX

'Stupid, stupid, stupid dad.' Naruto groused mentally as he and Temari walked through the streets of the village, 'Entertain her he says, how the hell do I do that?' He groused some more.

After leaving their parents to deal with whatever issues they wanted to deal with, Naruto and Temari had walked off into the village. And that's when the problems began. Apart from their introductions to each other, for the majority of the time, they had been walking in near awkward silence.

And it was beginning to drive Naruto mad, 'Come on, come on you stupid brain. Think of something to talk about!' Naruto was a sociable creature by default, he really couldn't deal with silence all that well, awkward silences even more.

Luckily for him, the silence was broken by his companion, "Is Konoha always this warm?" Temari asked as she noted her surroundings.

'The weather! Why couldn't I think of that!?' He yelled at himself at missing such an easy to talk about subject. Naruto nodded his head as he linked his hands behind his head, "Yeah, although its been getting warmer since it's nearly summer." Which was evident by the amount of people walking around in 'summery' clothes so to speak, "What about Suna?"

Temari just turned to look at him, "Suna is based in a desert." She deadpanned, "What do you think that means?"

Naruto looked at her with his squinted eyes, "Eh, loads and loads of sand?" He offered light-heartedly as a suggestion.

Temari just continued to look at him before looking back in front of her, "Well, yes. But it's also very hot." Which was to be expected from a desert anyway. If someone thought of the weather in a desert, they wouldn't think of something you would find in a mild climate country or place.

Naruto nodded as he took that to note, 'That explains the tan I guess.' He mused in regards to Temari's tanned skin-tone which was either natural or from her place of living, "So what is it like?"

"What is what like, the desert or Suna?"

"Suna I mean." He corrected, "What's it like?" Since he was going to become Hokage and Suna was a friend of Konoha, he might as well start learning about the village early right? Well, that was his logic on the matter anyway.

Temari stewed in silent thought for a few moments as she thought whether it was a good idea to talk about her village to an outsider, even if there two villages were allied with each other, "It's rather beautiful," She said, finally having gotten over her indecision on the matter. It wasn't like she was going to tell him anything important when she herself didn't know any important things, "Whenever you look down at the village from anywhere during dawn, the village is basked in a beautiful golden glow and the same can be said during sunset, the orange glow is rather beautiful."

Temari had gotten him at orange, "Orange huh?" Naruto mused to himself. Orange was his favourite colour, if it had something to do with orange, he was on it, "Sounds like the type of place I'd like!" He finished off with a grin.

Temari looked at him in amusement before shaking her head, "I don't really think so."

Naruto's expression and demeanour dropped, "Huh, what do you mean?" He demanded to know.

"Well," Temari began as she looked him over, "You don't really seem like a person who would be able to handle an average temperature of around 40 degrees daily."

Naruto looked at his fellow blonde with a look of affront, "I will have you know, Namikaze Naruto can handle anything this world throws at him." Temari just couldn't help herself but pinch Naruto's cheeks when he made that declaration. The expression he had made was just so cute. Naruto on the other hand, didn't appreciate it, especially in a public where lots of people were walking by and giggling at his expense, "What the hell are you doing?"

Temari blinked as she realised what she was doing and immediately moved her hand away. She looked away in embarrassment, pink flush on her cheeks, "Eh, sorry about that." She apologised, "I don't know what came over me." Cute things weren't her thing, but what Naruto had just done was simply adorable, "You just looked cute and adorable."

Naruto's eyebrow twitched in annoyance, "Cute _and_ adorable?" He repeated. That wasn't what he was going for. He was going for cool and aloof, not cute and adorable. No girls he knew off were interested in cute and adorable, "I'm not cute and adorable."

Temari stifled a giggle, "Well, you were cute just then." Naruto grumbled some more as they resumed walking. The older girl decided to change the subject for the benefit of the blonde, "You said you wanted to become Godaime, that does mean you want to be a ninja?"

Now it was Naruto's turn to just turn and look at her with a dry look, "...I was under the impression that you had to be a ninja to be a Hokage. Maybe I was wrong?" He said, voice dripping with sarcasm.

Temari puffed her cheeks in a somewhat childish pout, "You didn't have to say it like that."

Naruto didn't care, "I was just saying."

"Well would you look at this…" Naruto stopped in horror as he recognised the voice, "Is little Naru-chan on a date? And with an older girl too? I'm so proud I can feel a tear swelling in my eye." The familiar bright but also dull voice of one Hatake Kakashi drawled out, amusement in spades in his tone.

"Kakashi-nii…" Naruto grumbled as he turned around to face the masked ninja, who's eyes were firmly buried in a book, "I'm not on a date! I'm eight!"

Temari also turned around to give a tongue lashing on the person who had just out of nowhere came to the conclusion she was on a date, when she wasn't. She didn't have time for that stuff, she was training to be a kunoichi the likes of Tsunade!

...But then she remembered she was also representing her village and thus couldn't tongue lash anyone, so she settled to giving the masked man a cold, even glare.

A glare that Kakashi in all his greatness thoroughly and utterly ignored, "You're never too young to date…"

"Yeah you are!"

"Hmm…" Kakashi hummed in thought, if he could and felt like it, he would have been stroking his chin with that, "So if you're not on a date," He began lazily, not even deigning to look down at Naruto or Temari, "Then what do you call a boy and a girl out alone together?"

Naruto opened his mouth to answer but came up short as he realised he didn't have an answer to that question. He turned towards Temari, his eyes pleading with her to come up with something.

Instead, the Suna kunoichi-in-training turned to look away, herself not coming up with an answer.

Even without looking behind the man's mask, Naruto could feel the smile coming from Kakashi, "That's what I thought." He shooed them away lightly, "But don't mind me, you two just keep on doing whatever you're doing. I'll keep this little thing between us." In other words, when he found the right people, he was going to regale them with it, "I wonder how Jiraiya-sama will take this…" He mused just loud enough for Naruto to hear him as he walked away.

Naruto's head just dropped in dejection. Temari noted this and raised an eyebrow in curiosity, "What's with that reaction?"

Naruto thought about trying to explain it but just waved it off, "Eh, you don't want to know." He then quickly picked himself up, surprising Temari, "Alright, are you hungry? Cause I'm hungry and whether you're hungry or not, we're going to get something to eat!" He declared as he grabbed Temari's hand and started dragging her through the village streets.

"H-Hey!" Temari tried to let out an indignant yell at being dragged around like some puppy...or something like that.

XxX

(Hokage Tower - Meeting Room)

Like any other diplomatic meeting or negotiations, the talks between the two leaders of their respective villages had come to something of a stand still between Suna and Konoha. Reason being that Suna wanted all of the missions the Daimyo of Kaze no Kuni was directing Konoha's way.

Minato couldn't just accept that since he himself had a village to look after. Although the village was far from needing the money, in fact, the money coming from those jobs wasn't needed in the greater scheme of things, Konoha was doing well for itself.

According to the village accountants, they had more money in the treasury than ever before in Konoha's recorded history and with the Daimyo of Hi no Kuni seemingly having something of a soft spot for him, had somehow increased funding to the village by a somewhat pleasant 30%.

Even with all these factors coming into play, Minato just couldn't just direct missions away from the village. Various important people in the village would cause something of an uproar at the loss of income from those missions.

'At this rate, nothing is going to be done to better improve our relations…'

Something had to be done. Ninja alliances were frail, unpredictable and rarely lasted for more than a couple of years. Konoha and Suna's alliance had lasted for this long simply out of the need of both villages.

Konoha couldn't allow Iwa to gain influence in the region of Kaze no Kuni with the destruction of Suna. If that happened, they would be left to suffer a war from two fronts if a conflict arised in the future.

And in Suna's case, they wanted to continue to enjoy their autonomy and independence during their hard times and the only way for that to have occurred was to ally themselves with Konoha, the most amicable of the Five Great Nations.

As the talks between the two leaders continued, an idea sprang to Minato's mind on how to seal these talks without losing an entire client.

"Kazekage-dono," Minato began, "We both know that for these talks to be successful, the issue about the requests from Kaze no Kuni would have to be addressed."

His opposite nodded from his place, "That is correct. We have been at this for a few hours now, and we haven't progressed at all on that matter." The other matters put to the table were trivial compared to that single one.

The blonde Yondaime spoke once more, "It's impossible for me to turn away an entire client, but what I can do is offer to split the missions between us."

"I believe it was _all_ of the missions or nothing." The Kazekage interjected, "That is my stand on the matter and it hasn't changed."

Minato smiled as he leaned back in his chair, "What if I offer you our turns to host the Chunin Exams?"

That clearly got the man's attention. The Exams were a big business. They brought in tourists, travellers among various other things who would spend their money during their stay in the village for the exams, adding to the increased turnover of the village.

"You would offer us your turns to host the exams?" That had never been done before. Even during negotiations, nothing about the exams would be brought up. Villages considered them to lucrative to turn away or even give up.

Minato nodded, "Yes, that's what I'm offering." It wasn't any skin of his teeth with the loss of the exams. They could survive without the added extra windfall of not hosting the exams, "For the next five years of course."

Five years? That meant Suna would get another chance to host the exams and thus double the amount of money they bring in and double the chance to impress the spectators, "And what of the Daimyo's requests?"

"We split that 50/50." That was as best as they were going to get. He wasn't going to get any lower than that.

The Kazekage sat in his seat thinking it over for several moments, his eyes closed in concentration, "Very well, my answer is…"

XxX

"Naruto, who the hell is she!?" Was the loud yell from one Inuzuka Kiba as he saw his blonde friends come into view with an older looking blonde girl with him, "What the hell man? You got a girlfriend already? That's not fair!" It irked him to think that his blonde rival had beaten him in something they hadn't even gotten into a proper competition about.

Temari bristled slightly at that last comment, "I am _not _his girlfriend!" What was wrong with the people of this village randomly coming to assumptions like that without any sort of basis whatsoever? 'First that masked person, then those two people at that ramen stand and now this boy?' She growled mentally.

Seemingly sensing her ire, Naruto made sure to make some space between him and Temari, "She's right Kiba. She's not my girlfriend."

Shikamaru, having raised his head from the ground to look at Naruto arriving looked at the girl in curiosity, "Then who is she?"

"Her name is Temari." Naruto introduced her to his friends, "Her dad and my dad had some business to talk about, so he made me babysit her until then."

Temari scoffed, "Babysit? Yeah right. It's more like I'm babysitting you."

Naruto rolled his eyes, "You don't even know the village. I'm the one leading you about and the one in charge, so I'm the babysitter and you the babysitt-ee."

"That's not even a word!"

"It doesn't matter! The point still stands!"

Shikamaru immediately lost interest afterwards and looked at the two arguing blonde with his usual dry look, "Kami, you're both as loud and troublesome as each other. Now I won't be able to enjoy looking up at the clouds anymore." He grumbled to himself as he lay himself back down on the grass.

Temari snapped her head at him, "I heard that kid!"

'Kid?' Shikamaru thought to himself, 'You're like a couple years older than me.'

As Naruto took a seat, he noticed their little group was missing someone, "Where's Chouji?"

Shikamaru shrugged from his place on the ground, "He said something about clan training with his dad."

With that statement, Naruto turned to look at his pineapple haired friend, "And what about you? When are you going to start training?"

"Later."

"You said that the last time."

Kiba nodded, "And the last time was like two years ago dude." The young Inuzuka then blinked before grinning at Naruto, "Hey Naruto, check me out, do you what's different?"

Instead of checking Kiba out, Naruto recoiled, "Why the hell would I check you out?" He questioned with a look of displeasure, "If I was going to check someone out, it would be a girl like Temari here or better yet, your sister!"

Kiba spluttered, "My sister!?"

Temari blinked as she looked at Naruto, "Wait...did you just admit you would check me out?"

Shikamaru snorted from his place on the ground, "I wouldn't be surprised if he had been doing it ever since you met him."

Temari just turned to look at Naruto with an angry glare, face red with anger or embarrassment, maybe a mixture of both. Naruto slid away from her and took cover behind Kiba, who didn't like that at all, "Hey! If you're going to get your ass kicked, don't try and hide behind me!"

Naruto ignored him and continued to cower behind Kiba, "Hey, don't cause a diplomatic incident now!" That seemed to bring Temari back to her senses, but she continued to glare at him nonetheless. It was then that Naruto noticed that their was something atop Kiba's head, "Dude, there's a dog on your head." He pointed out lamely as he entered a staring contest with the dog.

Kiba immediately forgot about what Naruto had previously just tried to use him for, "I know! That's Akamaru, my ninken!"

Naruto continued to look up at the dog, "That's your dog?"

"_Ninken!_"

"Whatever." The blonde boy said as he dismissed Kiba's correction, "He doesn't look like much."

"Really? Why don't we test it out?"

Naruto dropped the staring contest and made his way towards a free seat, "No thanks. I don't want to get in trouble for wailing on a dog."

"_Ninken_ dammit!"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. Wasn't it obvious that Naruto referred to Akamaru as a dog just to simply get to him?

"Shikamaru!"

Oh kami. Another one? What was with today with all the blondes and everything? And this was one was the most troublesome out of the entire lot too. Actually, Naruto was, but she was a definite close second.

"What is it Ino?" Shikamaru asked with a dejected sigh of defeat. It just wasn't his day today.

A platinum blonde haired girl came to a halt in front of the group, "My mom wanted me to ask you whether you want to come round for dinner later?"

"No thanks, I'll have it at home."

"By the way, I already told your mom."

"...Dammit it Ino…" It just wasn't his day.

Ino then noted another blonde that wasn't his family friend's troublesome pranking friend, "Huh, who are you?" She asked, her question directed at Temari.

Temari gave a nod of greeting at Ino, "I'm Temari. It's a pleasure to meet you." She greeted rather formally to the girl.

"I'm Ino." She looked around and noted the girls clothes, "What's a high-class girl like you doing hanging around with all these bums?"

Ino smirked to herself when she received two hearty 'Fuck you's' from Naruto and Kiba.

"Naruto was just showing me around before deciding that he wanted me to meet his friends." Temari explained to her fellow blonde.

"Naruto…?" Ino let out as she looked at the blonde boy who was blankly staring at her. Her eyes began to slowly widen as her mind went into overdrive.

Naruto saw Ino's eyes widen and could immediately guess what conclusion she was coming to, and so did Temari, "No." Both blondes deadpanned, "Don't even say it Ino. I swear I'll prank you to hell if you say it." Naruto half-threatened his classmate.

Ino didn't care, "Are you two dating? I can't believe this! Naruto dating? No way! And how did you even manage to snag an older girl? You're too stupid looking and goofy."

"We're not dating!" Temari and Naruto snapped, "We just met today! What is wrong with people in this village!?" The female of the two blondes continued.

Shikamaru just sighed, "Welcome to Konoha. The home of the strange, weird and unbelievable. And most of all, the downright troublesome."

XxX

(Later - Namikaze Home)

Temari and the Kazekage had only been in Konoha for the day due to the rather swift talks that went between their two respective fathers. After meeting Shikamaru, Kiba and his dog, and Ino, Naruto had dragged Temari to other various places throughout the village.

As they talked, Naruto had asked her whether they had ice cream in Suna where he received a dry look from Temari for his answer. To make up for it, Naruto had taken her for ice cream, only to learn that each place that he took her to was closed.

After the fifth try, he had given up after cursing to the heavens for having some sort of conspiracy against him, much to Temari's amusement.

Hours later, Naruto was rather confident that apart from the 'date' teasing everyone was seemingly doing, he had managed to make a friend out of Temari, no matter how far they lived apart.

He rather like her personality of being blunt and straight to the point, there was no b.s.-ing with her. And if it wasn't for the fact that she had tied herself to representing Suna, she would have clobbered him a few times into the ground for the hijinks he took part in.

The blonde was currently sat at the dining table in his home, pleasantly eating dinner with his father in silence.

That silence was soon broken by the oldest Namikaze in the house, "So…" Minato began, trying to hide his amusement, "Did you enjoy your date with Temari?"

Naruto stopped dead cold and looked up at his dad with a dry look, "You suck dad."

"What?" Minato began, failing to hide his amusement in the entire thing, "My little boy went on his first date and I can't ask how it went?"

"It wasn't a date…"

"She seemed rather happy when she left. Should I be expecting future blonde babies?"

Naruto just gaped, "I'm eight! I don't even know how babies are made!" All he knew was that it would be impossible for him to look after a baby at the grand age of eight years old. The blonde just dropped his head onto the table, "You suck dad. Kakashi-nii sucks. Everyone sucks."

"Well, that depends on who you ask actually."

XxX

It had been several days since the visit of the Kazekage and his daughter and for the most part, it seemed all the teasing Naruto got from everybody about his 'date' with Temari had died down. Although there were a few hold-outs who denied letting sleeping dogs lie.

Currently, Naruto was busy training himself by going a healthy jog-slash/exploration of Konoha to pass the time. Shikamaru, Chouji, and Kiba had clan stuff to do, so he couldn't call upon them to cause some mischief and the sort today.

Naruto had soon found out that his jog had taken him to the back-end of Konoha where all the hot springs were located. He was greeted by some of the villagers as he made his way through the district and was even invited to join some of the female attendants into the onsens with them.

But Naruto gracefully denied. He had his moments, but right now, it was all about his little run.

As he cut through a small, forested hill that overlooked several hot springs, Naruto stopped when he recognised a familiar mop of wild white hair.

Wondering what he was doing, Naruto slowly crept up on the man, "Jiraiya-kyofu!" He greeted loudly beside the man, trying to scare him.

Unfortunately it didn't work, "Nice try gaki. I knew you were there the moment you started coming up this hill." Jiraiya remarked offhandedly as he continued to stare past some bushes with a spyglass to one his eyes, and a flush of pink on his cheeks.

"Oh," Naruto groaned in disappointment. When was he going to get good enough to sneak up on people? There were so many people he wanted to sneak up on. Nonetheless, he immediately picked himself up, "So what are you doing Jiraiya-kyofu?"

"Research." The legendary ninja replied simply enough, "I'm doing my important research so why don't you go find some other person to annoy?"

"But you're here, so why would I find another person to annoy then?" Naruto questioned as he crouched down next to his godfather. He peered past the bushes Jiraiya was looking through to only see various hot springs, "So what sort of research are you doing?"

Jiraiya leered, "The awesome kind."

"Can I do it too?" Naruto asked excitedly. If his awesome, powerful godfather said this research was awesome, then it was definitely awesome.

"No you can't."

"Aww, why not?"

"Your mother would kill me."

Naruto squinted his eyes in confusion, "But she's dead."

"I know." Jiraiya deadpanned, "But that won't stop her." Especially if she knew that he had been slowly, but surely corrupting her son over the past eight years, "Maybe when you're older."

Naruto just gave his godfather a deadpan look, "If she would kill you now for showing me, what's to stop her from doing so in the future when you show me?"

At that, Jiraiya stopped what he was doing and lowered his spyglass and thought about it. The brat had a point. What was the difference in showing him now than waiting a couple of years and showing him then? Nothing that's what. Kushina's spirit would haunt the hell out of him or kill him herself eitherway.

'Why she would care is beyond me anyway.' He knew she liked to read his books, much like how Minato casually read his books too. But Minato was a different kind of fan than Kushina. Minato was more into reading for the amusement and relaxation whilst Kushina was more into using it to spice up the bedroom if he remembered correctly.

"Alright kid," Jiraiya began as he held out the spyglass, "Today is your lucky day. You're about to see something that very few men in the world can ever see. A Holy Grail among Holy Grails."

Naruto took the spyglass, but had to hold it with both hands due to the weight, "Okay, whatever Jiraiya-kyofu." He had such weird people in his life, "So where am I looking at?"

"Hmm," Jiraiya thought about it, "Let's start off with something easy first." He said as he directed Naruto to the closest onsen, "Alright, now look into it."

Naruto did as he was asked and looked through the spyglass. Jiraiya watched in amusement as a seeping red colour slowly came onto Naruto's face.

"Jiraiya-kyofu…"

"Yeah kid?"

"Why am I looking into the womens' side of the onsen?"

"Because you wanted to see my research."

That brought another question from the blonde who kept looking through the spyglass, "What's your research for anyway?"

"My books of course."

"You write?"

"Oh yeah."

"Can I read them?"

"When you're older."

"Aww."

"Now give me my spyglass back, inspiration doesn't come cheap." The white-haired ninja said as he yanked the spyglass back from Naruto, "Now shoo kid. If you leave now, I'll show you a cool jutsu or something when I come round."

Naruto seemed rather dejected at having to stop what he was doing as he found it rather fun. But his mood immediately perked up at hearing the jutsu promise, "Okay! See ya Jiraiya-kyofu!" He yelled as he continued on his little run.

Jiraiya just watched Naruto run off having noticed the sudden mood change he had, "That kid is either bipolar or just plain weird…" He muttered. As he turned to look into his spyglass, the front glass cracked and then broke into pieces. Jiraiya just watched this with a blank look on his face, "That can't be good…" He slowly got up before the ground he was standing on suddenly gave way, sending him into a tumble down the hill, where, coincidentally enough, he rolled right through into the female side of a bathhouse.

Jiraiya slowly got up grumbling to himself as he rubbed off the dirt that was on his persons before noticing glares aimed in his direction. Noticing where he was, he couldn't help but let out a yelp of fear as a thought ran through his mind, 'Oh come on! I was joking with the whole haunting thing Kushina! It was bound to happen!'

* * *

><p><span>Sunagakure Shinobi<span>

Yondaime Kazekage

Ninjutsu: 5

Taijutsu: 4

Genjutsu: 4

Intelligence: 4.5

Strength: 3.5

Speed: 4

Stamina: 4

Hand Seals: 4

Total: 33.5

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Oohh, Temari and Naruto meet and people misunderstand! Is this some foreshadowing of a future pairing? Who knows!? Maybe it was just a random insert from an author who made it up on the fly!<strong>

**Anyway, on a serious note, I wish Kishi would get his shit together and give me some fucking names. Because I honestly cannot live with writing characters like the Yondaime Kazekage as the fucking Yondaime Kazekage, that is fucking shit. That is a fucking title, not a fucking name. He has a fucking name doesn't he? I had to fight off the fucking urge to give the Kazekage his own original name something like a play on his powers, like Kin (Gold in fucking japanese) or some shit like that. Yeah...Sabaku no Kin, that shit is the bomb. But I didn't, cause I adhere to the fucking canon whatever his name set.**

**...Fucking Bastard.**

**Right, my writing spree with this particular story of mine is coming to an end. Next updates will probably be Naruto Gaiden or the Shinobi Mage, unless I get some major fucking inspiration for this particular story again that I can't push to the side.**

**Well, Raiden out. Boom.**


	7. Desperate Times

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Goddammit...**

* * *

><p><strong><span>Chapter 7 - Desperate Times<span>**

"Gah!" Naruto cried out in pain as he crashed to the ground straight onto the back of his head. The blonde immediately sat up and nursed the newest bump that was growing on his head as he grumbled to himself and then turned to glare at the tree he had just fallen of.

After nursing it, he shot back to his feet and quickly looked at the tree, "I'm going to get this. No tree is going to stop me!" He declared as he charged off towards the tree once more.

Of at the side, sitting underneath some protection from the hot summer sun, Shikamaru, Chouji and Kiba observed Naruto doing whatever he was doing with varying amounts of amusement. Kiba being the one finding Naruto's constant crashing to the ground and adding some new bump on his head the most amusing sort of entertainment he ever seen in his short eight years.

Kiba let out a loud bark of laughter as Naruto fell off the tree once more, "Alright, can somebody explain to me what he's doing again?" He asked as he wiped a tear away from his eye, other hand petting his ninken, Akamaru.

Chouji gave an unknowing shrug as he munched on some bag of chips, "Don't know. We came to see if he would play, but he said something about training to do. So we just stayed to see what sort of training he would do." And the training that Naruto was doing was rather amusing if he said so himself. Chouji might have been the definition of a gentle giant, but even he would see a good opportunity of the comedic kind if he saw one. And this was definitely one.

Kiba looked at Naruto once more and quirked a confused eyebrow, "How is this training?" He asked, rather puzzled. All Naruto was doing was trying to run up a tree.

"Don't know." Chouji replied, before turning to face Shikamaru, "Maybe Shikamaru knows?" He suggested, reason being that Shikamaru knew about a lot of things.

Said boy grumbled to himself. Why did Chouji have to involve him in this conversation? He was enjoying himself just watching Naruto keep falling of the tree without having to speak at all, "Sorry Chouji," The constantly lethargic boy drawled out, "I have no idea what he's doing." He was about as much in the dark as Chouji and Kiba were on whatever Naruto was doing.

"Oh well, I guess we'll never know then." Chouji said in nonchalant manner.

Kiba didn't like that answer, "Come on, there's got to be somebody here that knows what he's doing." He then began to look around, whilst occasionally sniffing the air, "Doesn't he always have some sort of Anbu on him? I'm sure they would know."

Shikamaru glanced lazily at Kiba, "He does...but I sincerely doubt you would be able to locate whoever is tailing him." If Naruto had Anbu on him, it would be embarrassing if they were found out by a boy that had only begun his clan training a few years back and was still in the first year of the ninja academy, "It would be much easier to just ask Naruto himself." He pointed out.

Kiba stopped his actions with a dumbfounded look on his face, "That _would_ be easier wouldn't it?" The Inuzuka teenager immediately turned his attention towards Naruto, "Hey Naruto," He called out, causing the blonde boy to immediately stop what he was doing and look at him...whilst running up the tree again. Kiba winced when he saw Naruto reacquittance himself with the ground once more, "Eh, you alright there?" He asked with some small measure of guilt in what had just occurred.

Naruto grumbled as he nursed his head once more, "I'm fine. Been better though," He finished off underneath his breath. The young blonde ninja-in-training then turned his attention towards Kiba, "What did you want?"

"We were wondering, just what the heck are you doing?"

Shikamaru felt the need to correct Kiba's statement, "Actually, Kiba was the one wondering what you were doing. Me? I couldn't careless." This was the least troublesome thing he's had to deal with when it came with Naruto. The blonde wasn't dragging him to do kami knows what that was nothing more than the norm with him.

"Shut up Shikamaru."

Naruto raised an eyebrow before deciding to catch a break and made his way towards the others, "Chakra control." Was all Naruto said as he dropped to the ground, lying on his back and staring up to the sky.

"Huh?" Kiba let out in confusion, "If you're doing chakra control, why not just use the leaf concentration exercise?" That was the basic chakra control exercise he had been taught by his mother before he joined the academy. And even then, that particular exercise had also been taught to them in their first few months of the academy for all the students who didn't hail from ninja clans or families and thus didn't receive that training.

Naruto shrugged, "Dad says I have too much chakra for that exercise to be fully effective. I have to do this one instead." He sighed as he stretched himself on the ground, "Painful as hell though."

Something about what Naruto had just said had caught Shikamaru's attention, to the point that he had actually managed to find the effort deep inside him to prop himself up by the elbows of his hands, "Too much chakra?" He questioned his blonde friend, "How can you have too much chakra?" As far as he knew about chakra, the energy was like a muscle. The more you used it, the bigger it became, unless you were born into a clan with naturally bigger than normal chakra reserves.

"My mom's an Uzumaki." Naruto yawned out from his place in the shade.

The others just looked at it, expecting him to continue with his explanation. After a while, they noticed that Naruto expected them to just connect the dots with that vague answer he had just given them. Kiba wasn't having any of it, "Okay, so what's an Uzumaki and why is it important to you and having too much chakra?"

Naruto propped himself up from the ground through the use of his elbows, "You don't know?" He asked as he looked at them with raised eyebrows.

"Don't know what?"

Naruto scratched his head as he tried to think about how to explain this to his friends before deciding to be blunt about it, "Well, see, my mum came from this clan called the Uzumaki clan. They were so kick-ass that they had their own hidden village and that it took a group of nations to actually beat them," He said, his tone slowly become more solemn as he continued speaking. He shook his head to get the negative thoughts out of his head, "Anyway, apparently, the characteristics of an Uzumaki was red hair-"

"You would suck with red hair." Kiba cut in as he imagined Naruto with red hair. Something about it just wouldn't suit the spiky nature of his hair. It was as if blonde was his colour.

Naruto just turned to cast a dry look in Kiba's direction, "Your opinion has been duly noted, now shut up." The blonde snapped at the feral boy before continuing with his explanation, ignoring the look he was receiving from Kiba, "Anyway, the characteristics were red hair, really long life-span or something and large and powerful chakra."

Shikamaru nodded, "Okay, so in a nutshell," The young Nara began slowly as he went through everything Naruto had said and been doing, "You have more chakra than your average joe and thus, to control it better, you're doing a more advanced chakra control exercise?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, pretty much." He answered rather simply.

Shikamaru just gave Naruto a dry glare, "...Then why didn't you just say that?" There had been no need for him to go into his family history and their characteristics. A simple sentence explaining to him that his moms' side of family were known chakra batteries would have been more than enough for him, "For such a simple guy," He continued slowly as he relaxed himself back to the ground, "Can't you just keep things simple? You're so troublesome."

"Oh shut up Shika." Naruto said in retaliation to his friend, "Where's the fun in that?" He finished off before himself allowing himself to fall flat to the ground. He then immediately set up as he realised something and glared fiercely at Shikamaru, "...Did you just call me stupid?"

Kiba sniggered from the side, "He called you simple Naruto." He pointed out as Akamaru barked in his lap, "I think he did just call you stupid. And I think I agree with him on that."

Naruto turned his glare from Shikamaru to Kiba, "Oh shut up Kiba! Apart from taijutsu, what else do you have going on at the academy?" Naruto asked. One good way of getting one over someone who called you stupid was to point out that you were doing better than them in the academic sense. And in Naruto's case, he was trampling all over Kiba, "If I'm stupid, then what are _you_?"

Kiba stuttered for several moments before glaring at Naruto, "Oh just you wait Naruto, academy grades don't mean anything when you become a ninja. I bet you when we graduate, I'll be the first of us to get promoted to chunin." He stopped himself, blinked for a moment before a feral grin that bared his growing canines spread across his lips, "Better yet, I'll get to Hokage before you!"

Naruto just looked at Kiba with the blankest look that he could muster.

"W-What?" The look was rather starting to unnerve the young Inuzuka.

Naruto's look broke when a twitch appeared on the end of his lips before he fell into full blown laughter, "Oh that was good." He guffawed as he tried to take in breaths of air, whilst at the same time, continuing to laugh his head off, "You? _Hokage_? Oh man, I can't even imagine you in that position."

Kiba was offended and quickly showed it, "What? Why!?"

Naruto just gave Kiba his own toothy grin, "I don't think they allow mutts to become Hokages."

The dog using ninja just looked at Naruto with a dry look before merely thumbing in the direction of the open space in the back garden, "Alright, you, me now. It's about time we sort out who's top dog of this pack." Kiba said as he walked towards the open-space, Akamaru joining him as he dilligently walked beside his master.

Naruto scoffed but nonetheless got up from his place on the ground, "Here we go again. Clearly the last ass-kicking I gave you didn't drill it into your head that I am _the _top dog of this pack." He remarked as he walked to join Kiba on the make-shift pitch. He stopped when he noticed the young puppy that was Akamaru, happily wagging its tail and barking beside Kiba. He thumbed towards the dog, "Is your dog going to be fighting too?"

"_Ninken _dammit!"

Of at the side of the ring, Shikamaru sighed, "Maybe if they hit each other hard enough, they'll knock themselves out and leave me in peace to enjoy this, beautiful, beautiful day." Because their constant fighting, shouting and one-upmanship was beginning to seriously cut into his 'me' time.

Chouji chuckled as he looked on, "Maybe." He said as he dug into a packet of chips and pulled out a handful that were quickly deposited into his mouth, "Depends on how heated they get." And if they got too heated and too into their little fight, then he was probably going to have to step in. He wouldn't be a good friend to just sit at the sideline and watch two of his closest friends send themselves to the hospital.

Shikamaru probably would though, just for the sake of the silence that would come afterwards.

XxX

(Council Meeting Room)

Occasionally, a thought of whether the Shodai was in his right mind when he decided to create the council would creep inside Minato's head. These type of thoughts would come into existence whenever a subject that he didn't want to discuss would be brought out. A subject that he had clearly stated that he was going to handle.

Hiruzen, a member of his council, trusted him enough to not bring about the subject, but that was easier said than done when it came to the other three members of his council. He figured it had something to do with the generation gap.

As far as they were concerned, he was still a youngster in their eyes who had been entrusted with the safety of their village and home. And just such a mentality would bring, they thought that his way of handling situations was wrong and their way right.

Even more infuriating was that the council had power to override him on some decisions if they so ever wished. Wasn't this whole establishment supposed to be a military dictatorship with the decisions resting on him?

Well, he couldn't deny the council made his life easier by taking some of the workload of his shoulders, but the same could also have been said the other way round, that sometimes, _sometimes_ the council made his life a living hell.

This fucking job…

"Complaints about the Uchiha clan have been on the rise lately." Koharu seemingly said out of the blue.

'How did I not see that coming?' Minato thought rather sarcastically, stopping himself from rolling his eyes at the sudden mention of anything to do with the Uchiha clan, 'Well, at least they hadn't been brought up as frequently as they used to be.'

And that was mostly up to Minato. His initial idea of having Fugaku head the investigation of the disappearances had been a master stroke when it came to public relations. With the knowledge that not only the head of the clan had managed to solve the disappearances and that his clan had suffered greatly from the perpetrator himself and that said perpetrator had slowly become one of the most vilified people in the entire village, opinion on the clan had slowly started to improve.

Minato had hoped that this mood would continue until the village started accepting the clan once more into its fold. He had even made steps to do that. Anbu had previously been out-of-bounds for Uchiha clansmen through some sort of unwritten code (Minato guessed it had something to do with the Nidaime Hokage since the Anbu itself was a brainchild of the man known for his rather distrustful outlook on the entire clan), but the blonde Hokage had changed that and had started accepting Uchiha clansmen into the Black Ops unit.

This might have seemed like a simple gesture, but to anyone who was observant enough, it meant a whole lot more. The Anbu Division of Konoha's shinobi population and any village in general was trusted with carrying out high priority missions for the sake of the village. Therefore, the ninja that were allowed into the division, many would consider highly loyal to their village and thus trusted by anyone who asked.

So all in all, it boiled down to, why would a village leader entrust the security of his village to members of a clan that weren't trusted? And the answer people would have come too would be that the leader trusted the clan, and thus by an umbrella affect, others should trust them.

That had been the whole problem with the entirety of the Uchiha situation. The clan felt that they weren't trusted by the village with the most common root of the problem with being the actions of Uchiha Madara decades ago.

Something that should have only been attributed to one man had somehow managed to spread to the entire clan like some sort of plague.

That plague hadn't been noticeable for a very, very long time. To the point that only the shinobi population in the higher village hierarchy knew of the entire thing, but with the Kyuubi incident that had happened eight years ago, that plague of mistrust had managed to infect the general population, both shinobi and civilians.

"The Uchiha are growing impudent." Danzo commented, "They are not showing the proper respect they should be to the village."

But apparently, his efforts had been for nought as that mistrust had suddenly reared its ugly head once more, "No they're not. It's just the backlash from the Kyuubi incident eight years ago." Minato said as he came to the defence of the clan, "That negativity still hangs over them." 'And it's partly your fault.' He finished off his sentence mentally as he discreetly looked at the bandaged form of Danzo.

Hiruzen had informed Minato of Danzo's order to that clan to concentrate more on evacuating the civilians. His reason being that the Uchiha couldn't be trusted stopping the Kyuubi if they used their visual prowess to control the being and possibly turn on Konoha.

Whilst that could have been a perfectly reasonable assumption, some would have argued that the Uchiha were more than loyal enough to calm the beast down with their visual prowess and thus, the loss of life they had suffered that night would have been significantly reduced.

That very act alone was more than enough to cast suspicion on the clan once more.

Homura looked in Minato's direction, "The Uchiha district didn't suffer any damage during the attack." He pointed out to the young Hokage.

Minato nodded his head in agreement with that fact, "But you forget that the district is located in the outer reaches of the village." Most clans had their districts or compounds located deeper in the village itself, in fact, the Uchiha was the only one that had its district furthest away from the village, "The Kyuubi appeared in one of the central areas. That simple fact can't be alluded to them." That was just asinine. Why put suspicion on them on the state of their own property when it wasn't particularly their fault that they were located so far out of the way?

"Then what about the sudden disappearances of Fugaku and Mikoto on the night in question?" Koharu queried as she eyed the blonde Hokage.

"Fugaku was spotted leading the evacuations in the village," Minato said as he once more came to the defence of the clan, especially Fugaku, the man who suspicion was cast on the most. He then frowned about the location of the other person, "I can't speak for Mikoto though." He shook his head, "But this continued mistrust of the clan should be washed away. If we continue with this policy, then the clan will feel aggrieved by it."

"We're only following the policy of isolation that the Nidaime instilled during his reign." Danzo informed Minato.

This caught the young Hokage by surprise as he blinked, "What?" There was a policy about this that was put into place by the Nidaime? Why was he only learning of this now? Dammit, it better not have been one of those generation things. He hated those things.

Having stayed silent throughout the majority of the proceedings to let Minato put his own foot in the ground, Hiruzen came to his successor rescue as he knew Minato wasn't aware of such a policy, "The Nidaime's intention wasn't to isolate the clan. He was just concerned for each clan." The clans were notoriously difficult to work with when it came to their secrets. That was why the clan district was by far the largest district in the entire village. Clan compounds were seperated by miles of land between each one. In fact, some clans felt that the Hyuuga clan should have been located in the outer reaches of the village much like the Uchiha due to their own doujutsu that allowed them to see through things for miles on ends.

"The Uchiha clan is a friend of the village." Hiruzen continued, "We must make sure that it stays that way."

Danzo opened his constantly closed eye slightly, "If we can…"

XxX

(Uchiha District)

"Naruto," Shikamaru drawled out slowly, "Why are we here again?" He asked as he slowly walked behind the blonde energy battery. He didn't want to start feeling paranoid or anything, but it felt like he was being watched. Not the good kind of being watched, but the bad kind...if there was ever such a good king of being watched anyway.

Naruto scoffed as he led the way fearlessly, like the leader of men he was, "We're visiting Sasuke of course." He answered as if the answer should have been obvious the moment they had walked into the district.

Shikamaru in return raised an eyebrow of interest, "I thought you and him were rivals?" And not any kind of rivals, the type of rivals that didn't like each other much.

"Oh we are." Naruto answered simply enough. Him and Sasuke were rivals, that was what the world saw, and what they saw. But the blonde would also admit that he had some grudging respect for the dark-haired Uchiha.

"Then why are visiting him?" Last time he checked, Naruto and Sasuke didn't get along that well. They tended to start fighting about the simplest of things.

Naruto let out a scoff and rolled his eyes, "There _is_ such a thing as called _friendly_ rivals."

"Uhuh," Shikamaru let out simply, not believing a single word that had just been uttered to him, "I'll believe that when you guys stop fighting about everything." Then everything just clicked, and like that, this impossible situation was starting to make sense, "...You're going to mess with him aren't you?" The young Nara said in a conspiratory tone.

The blonde in question had a look of a cat that got caught eating the canary, "Maybe." He let out in sing-song, barely hiding the happy tone in his voice.

"Urgh…" Shikamaru just groaned. He should have gone home just like the others. But no, his mom had to say that he had to stay out until she called for him. And knowing his mom, that was going to be hours from now, there was still daylight in the day afterall.

Shikamaru and Naruto continued making their way through the district towards Sasuke's house...and speaking of that little matter, "Do you even know where Sasuke's house is?" Shikamaru asked as he noted they weren't walking in any noticeable direction and that in fact, they were still located in the shopping part of the district.

"Actually, no." He had never had a reason to come out all the way out here. All his pranking targets where located inside the village.

Shikamaru let an exasperated groan escape his lips, "Why are you so troublesome Naruto?

Naruto grinned at the pineapple haired youth, "Because it wouldn't be fun if I wasn't." No, the world needed him to be just like this, either wise it would fail to bask properly in his pure, unopened bottle of awesomeness.

"No, it would be much more normal." Normal meant not troublesome, normal meant not having to exert too much effort or little effort at all. Shikamaru loved normal. But his preferences weren't the point of contention today, it was the fact that they were supposed to be going somewhere and they had no idea where they were, "Can we just stop and ask someone for directions?" That's what normal people did when they were lost, ask for directions. Clearly the thought had gone through Naruto's head hadn't it?

Naruto snapped his fingers in Shikamaru's direction, "That is an excellent idea."

...Well, maybe not then.

Naruto looked around before heading towards one seemingly random person, "Excuse me," A young man with shaggy hair and defined eyelashes looked down at Naruto with a raised eyebrow, "You wouldn't know where Sasuke's house is would you?"

Shikamaru sighed as he rubbed the temple of his head, "He'll need more information than that Naruto. There could be dozens of Sasukes here."

Naruto ooed at the point that Shikamaru was helpfully pointing out. He then turned to face the young man once more, "Right Sasuke, has black hair that looks like a duck's butt, always seems to have something rammed up his ass or something like that. You can't miss him."

Shikamaru just facepalmed himself in the face, "Words fail me." He grumbled to himself as he shook his head.

The young man smirked in amusement, "Sasuke huh? I think I know which Sasuke you're talking about."

"Really?"

Shikamaru looked up at the man with a disbelieving expression, "You got that from that?"

The man nodded with an easy smile on his face, "Although from the few times I've been with him, he didn't seem to have some sort of stick up his ass."

Naruto shrugged uncaringly, "Well, that's your opinion." He said as he absently picked his ear, "And since this is a democracy, the vast majority of people think he does, and therefore he does have something up his ass."

The young man blinked before smiling, "I have to meet these people some time then." He looked down at Naruto and Shikamaru, "Alright, I was heading in that direction anyway, why don't you guys just come with me then?" The two boys nodded their heads, "I'm Shisui."

Naruto waved at him, "Naruto."

Shikamaru just gave a single nod, a wave too far out of the realms of possibilities with him, "Shikamaru."

XxX

Sasuke just looked on in front of him with an expression that showed he wasn't at all displeased with what he was seeing in front of him, "...What are you two doing here?"

Sitting in front of him, one grinning madly and the other one looking like he wanted to be anywhere else other than here, Naruto spoke for the two of them, "I thought we would come and say hi." His grin got wider, "And then maybe ask if you wanted to come out and play."

Sasuke just looked at Naruto like he was some sort of idiot, and in his humble opinion, Naruto was some sort of idiot as far as he was concerned, "What in your right mind makes you think that I would want to play with you?" Exhibit one being that very idea that had made him come into his home to ask a simple question that he should have known that would meet an immediate no as the answer.

"Cos we are awesome." Naruto said as if that statement was more than enough to answer his question.

"That doesn't explain anything!"

Naruto huffed, "Then you're not as awesome as I thought you were."

Sasuke just looked at Naruto. Why did this idiot infuriate him as much as he did? With his entire presence, Sasuke just felt like strangling him.

Shikamaru sighed as he got to his feet and tugged Naruto up, "Alright, we came, he doesn't want to hang out, let's just go."

"Aww, but we're hanging out right now aren't we?" Naruto asked as he tried to make Shikamaru release him. For a guy that didn't move much, he sure had surprising grip strength, "Come on Shika, tell me you're not having fun."

"I'm not having fun."

"You only said that because I told you too."

"You asked."

Sasuke just watched the two banter between them before slowly, and robotically turn to look at Shisui, the man responsible for bringing both of the boys to his home, his sanctuary away from people like them (mostly Naruto), "...Why?" He just breathed out.

Shisui just grinned as he waved jovially at the boy, "Because they said they were your friends. And here I thought you didn't have any friends." He shook his head, "You shouldn't let people have thoughts like those."

"I don't care." If he was going to have friends, he would pick much better friends than the class idiot and his lazy friend. Although he would admit he would prefer Shikamaru as a friend before Naruto ever came into mind, "Can't you genjutsu them or something and make them leave?" He then blinked as something came to mind, "And give a really bad genjutsu to Naruto. Like something that will terrify him."

Shisui raised an eyebrow, "Well no, I can't do that." Sons of the Hokage and a clan leader notwithstanding at all.

"You suck Shisui-nii."

Shisui gave the younger Uchiha a mock pout, "That's not nice. You know you love me." He then pondered his next words, "More than Itachi I figure."

"More than who exactly?"

The two bickering boys of Naruto and Shikamaru stopped bickering to look at the source of the new voice in the room, "Who are you?" Naruto asked as he looked at the older boy with black hair tied into a ponytail and dark eyes.

Naruto's question wasn't answered by the man himself, but instead by Sasuke who quickly got to his feet to run towards his brother's side, "Itachi-niisan!" He let out in a unnaturally unlike him happy tone. It wasn't until he got to his brother that he realised what had just happened and turned around to face Naruto and Shikamaru, "...You didn't hear anything."

A slow, tentative smirk started forming on Naruto's lips, "I don't know man...I'm sure I heard something. Isn't that right Shika?"

Shikamaru couldn't help but nod, "Who would have known that the famed and aloof Uchiha Sasuke had a brother complex?" This was gold for him. He might not have been as mischievous as his blonde friend, but even he would get into the mood when the situation was right in front of him.

Naruto nodded in agreement, "If people heard about this, Mr. Cool would stop being Mr. Cool…" He then trailed off as he thought about something, "Maybe he'll be called Mr. I love my brother."

Shikamaru just looked at Naruto, "Way to go Naruto. You just ruined it. What kind of nickname is that?"

"I don't know Shika." Naruto snapped, "I had something good, but I lost it. Come back to me in a few hours."

"I think the point would have been lost by then." Sasuke's older brother finally spoke after taking in the two youngsters in the room, "I'm Itachi...Sasuke's older brother." He introduced himself, even without having been asked or prompted too. Well, wasn't that nice of him? Naruto and Shikamaru went to introduce themselves also but were stopped by Itachi, "I know who you are, Namikaze Naruto and Nara Shikamaru."

"Huh, I must be more famous than I thought." Naruto mused as he rubbed his chin in thought.

"I think it would have something more to do with the fact that you look a lot like your old man." Shikamaru pointed out. And he had a point, all Naruto would have to do is grow out his hair, and boom, he would look like a bonafide younger Namikaze Minato...without all the coolness and cool intelligence that came along with it of course. But hey, appearances could go a long way for him wouldn't it?

"You just couldn't let me have that could you?"

"No." He didn't know how, and he didn't know when, but he had somehow managed to peg himself as Naruto's ego checker. Constantly shooting him down when it reared its ugly head before it got too big to bare.

Having finally got himself of being doused with enough stupid for today, Sasuke let it known, "Alright, you two had your fun. Can you just go before I kick you out myself?"

Naruto took that as a challenge, "Kick us out? Please, I would kick your ass before you even managed to land a hit on me."

"He's landed several hits on you during spars Naruto." Came the helpful reminder from Shikamaru.

"Dammit Shika, can you not be _that_ guy?" Naruto asked. Really, he liked Shikamaru, he was his best friend and the guy was cool to hang around with, but sometimes, he just felt like punting him into the distance, "No matter how hard it is for you?"

"Does it even matter if I'm that guy or not?"

Naruto nodded his head, "Yes it does. It does mean a whole lot." He said fervently before going further into his explanation, "If you're that guy, who knows, one day you might find yourself with a kunai into your back because you were that guy!"

"Hey!"

Shikamaru and Naruto stopped their conversation to look at Sasuke who seemingly had a vein that was about to burst, "Can you just, or I don't know, just have your conversation somewhere away from him here? Like out my house." That was his way of telling them that if they didn't leave, he was going to get violent.

Naruto and Shikamaru shared a look before looking back at Sasuke. The blonde of the pair linked his hands behind his head, "If you were feeling left out, you could have just said. We would have made space for you to join in with the conversation."

Sasuke just looked at Naruto before taking a single step forward but was stopped by Itachi's hand on his shoulders, "Now Sasuke, there's no need to get violent."

Sasuke looked at his older brother, "But they are in our house!" He whined.

"Because you invited them in."

"I didn't invite them in." Really, why would he invite these two into his home? His brother should know that, "Shisui-nii just brought them in! I didn't even get a chance to close the door!" Speaking of which, where was that particular Uchiha anyway?

"Shisui did?" Itachi said with a raised eyebrow, "Maybe I'll have a word with him later on. But that doesn't matter, they're still guests nonetheless. Treat them as such."

"Yeah Sasuke," Came a snigger from Naruto, "Listen to your older brother. We're guests in your house. Deal with it."

Sasuke just wanted to punt Naruto, but the look he was receiving from his older brother said otherwise, "Fine," He growled out, "...I'll be nice."

The sound of a door being opened was soon heard followed by a call into the house, "Sasuke, I'm back!" A female voice called out as she walked into the living room to see her two sons along with two boys she was well versed with, "Naruto, Shikamaru, did you come here to visit Sasuke?"

"Yep!" Naruto said with a nod and a grin as he waved at the woman, "Long time no see Mikoto-obasan."

"Long time to no see indeed." She placed her hands on her hips and gave a mock glare at the young blonde, "What did I tell you about calling me obasan? I'm not that old."

Naruto withered underneath the glare, "Eh sorry." What was he supposed to call her? She was sort of like an aunt. She had been friends with his mom and whenever he ran into her, she would talk to him about his mother. They seemed to be close from what he had heard.

Sasuke looked at the interaction between his mother and unadmitted rival, "You two know each other?" He wasn't even aware of the fact that his mother knew entirely of Naruto's existence apart from being the son of the Hokage. And the -obasan suffix he gave her showed that those two were rather close or well acquainted with each other.

Mikoto nodded her lovely head, "His mother was a very dear friend of mine before she unfortunately passed away." Much so that she occasionally checked up on Naruto, to give him some semblance of an older female presence in his life.

Sasuke nodded, "Okay…" He said slowly before an idea hit him, "Since you two are so close, can you tell him to go away?"

Mikoto raised one of her delicate eyebrows in thought, "Is there something I'm missing here?" She asked as she looked between her usually gentle, youngest son and replayed his rather blunt request in her head and the son of one of her dearest friends.

Naruto laughed sheepishly, "Oh, its nothing to worry about Mikoto-obasan."

"When you say that Naruto, I can't help but worry."

XxX

(Weeks Later - Hokage's Office)

Minato sat in his office doing Hokage stuff...which mostly included reading over mission reports that were deigned important enough for him to read over, the village stockpile on various items and other important matters that mattered to the whole of the village.

This activity continued for several minutes before he was lulled out of his work by a knock on his door, "Come in." Minato said without looking at the office door. He was forced to look up though when he heard the familial tapping of a cane on the office floor and immediately guessed to who had come to visit him. And when he looked up, he wasn't disappointed, "Danzo-san," He greeted amicably, "How can I help you today?"

Danzo didn't come to see Minato unless there was something of great importance. In fact, in the entirety of his nearly ten year rule, apart from the usual council meetings, Danzo had only visited him a few times that they could be counted on both hands.

"Hokage-sama." Danzo greeted taciturnly in return as he made his way to a spare seat in front of Minato's desk, "I hope I'm not interrupting you."

Minato shook his head, "Not really. It's just the usual work here." Danzo gave a small nod as he took the seat for himself, "So what do I owe the pleasure for your visit?" He asked again, his previous question of the same line being seemingly ignored.

"You're an extremely intelligent man Minato, I'm sure you could make a reasonable guess as to my presence here."

Minato gave a small nod of his own before he gave his answer, "The Uchiha clan."

"Exactly."

The blonde Hokage relaxed in his chair and propped his elbows onto his desk and linked his fingers together, "And like I said before, I am handling it." This same old song and dance was starting to aggravate him, even if he didn't show it, "Like Hiruzen-san said, the Uchiha clan are friends of the village, and like him, I would like it if it stayed that way."

Danzo raised a curious eyebrow, "And what if they don't wish to continue being friends with the village."

"Then I'll be forced to handle it." Minato replied earnestly, his voice and tone showing that if ever an extreme situation involving the clan came up, he would be willing to handle it with extreme prejudice, "But until then, nothing happens."

The heavily crippled man gave a single, terse nod before speaking once more, "The clan is meeting once more today."

Minato frowned, "That's not for us to know or interfere in. You know this Danzo-san. The village can't interact with clan rituals." He pointed out. That law had been one of the agreements made by the various clans when it came to the formation of the village decades ago. The agreement being that the village, even the Hokage couldn't interfere with a clan's tradition any single way, "I'm sure your own clan would be up in arms if we started looking into their own practices." The Shimura clan were rather hard-nosed about traditions involving shinobi and their secrets.

"Maybe so," Danzo agreed, "But not if it involves the future safety of our village."

This time, it was Minato's turn to raise a curious eyebrow, "And what do you mean by that Danzo-san?"

"Don't play games with me Hokage-sama." Danzo began lowly, "You very well know that treasonous elements in the clan have started appearing. Being led by none other than Fugaku himself. What if he uses this chance to fan the flames of distrust against us and rally the clan to his cause?"

Minato wasn't really surprised by that sudden outburst from Danzo. He knew very well that the old man sitting in front of him had his own ways of getting information, even if information like this was known to only a very few people, Danzo not being one of them.

"I know that." Minato said in confirmation, like the man himself, he knew things happening inside clans that weren't officially reported, "But I also know that those treasonous elements have only started appearing recently. And their numbers are of no concern at the moment."

"You plan to ignore them?" Danzo let out with a slight scoff, "What if their numbers continue to rise with each passing day or even minute? You very well know that the Uchiha is powerful, even if a small number of them go through with whatever coup they plan, damage to the village could be irreparable and other villages may take that opportunity to strike!"

He couldn't let that happen. He lived and breathed for the safety of Konoha. He had done things in the name of the village that he loved that many would consider immoral or unethical. Not that such things mattered to him anyway. He would do what was needed to protect his home.

And his home was being threatened by a Hokage that was seemingly ignoring the situation that was developing right in front of him.

"I don't plan to ignore them Danzo-san." Minato said with a shake of the head, "I already have a plan in the works that will allow me to nip this potential rebellion before it has even started."

The old councillor in the room raised an eyebrow, "And may I have the pleasure of hearing this plan?"

Minato stayed silent as he thought about the request coming from the veteran shinobi that had seen and done everything his line of work required of him. It wasn't a request that he could just outright deny him, because he didn't have a reason to deny him and Danzo had the maximum security clearance to hear of it anyway.

The only reason he didn't want the old warhawk to know of his plan was because of trepidation on his part and instinct on another that warned him to not trust the man. Danzo had always given him an uneasy feeling, ever since his younger days.

"Shisui," Minato finally said after a pregnant pause, "Come in."

With that utterance, the door to the office opened and in stepped Uchiha Shisui, dressed in a high-collared dark outfit with a leather harness strapped over his shoulder for his tanto.

The young man took several steps into the room before dropping down to a knee, "Hokage-sama, Danzo-sama."

At Shisui's appearance, Danzo immediately began to connect the dots so to speak, "I see," He began slowly, "You plan on having Shisui use his Kotoamatsukami (Distinguished Heavenly Gods) on Fugaku."

Minato nodded tersely, "Only if the Uchiha patriarch tries to incite a rebellion. If he does, Shisui will use his jutsu to change his mind, making him think his thoughts are his own."

"I will make it so that Fugaku-sama speaks about co-existence with the village." Shisui said in confirmation of Minato's statement.

"Hm, I highly doubt just changing Fugaku's mind would stop to the Uchiha dissatisfaction." Danzo pointed out, "And what if some of the other dissatisfied elements of the clan find his sudden change of thinking suspicious? Shisui would immediately become under suspicion because of his jutsu."

"I won't come under suspicion." Shisui spoke up, still kneeling in front of the two high ranked members of the village hierarchy, "The only people who know of my Sharingan ability is Hokage-sama, the village council and Itachi. The others were my parents and grandfather, but they have since long passed from this world."

Which essentially meant that no-one in the clan even knew that Shisui probably possessed one of the most powerful genjutsu in the world. The ability to control people's actions without them even realising they were being controlled. All the clan knew about his eyes was that he possessed a powerful and special Mangekyo Sharingan (Kaleidoscope Copy Wheel Eye) that made his eyes valuable, even without knowledge of that particular jutsu of his.

"And anyway, even if the other elements are suspicious, Shisui's action will give us time," Minato began as he went into further explanation, "Time for the village to change and for the Uchiha to change. In that time before such thoughts ever reappear again, I plan on improving the village's relations with the Uchiha clan."

Danzo scoffed once more. Once again, Konoha was under the hands of someone who refused to do what was necessary, "You have been doing that ever since the Kyuubi incident, how well has that worked?" He asked, his neutral tone having lost some of its neutrality as a little bit of disrespect seeped through into his words.

Minato went to defend his policy over the past years, but didn't have to as Shisui was the one who defended him, "If it wasn't for Hokage-sama's efforts over the past years, there would be more people in the clan that would be more willing to rebel against the village." Shisui said, his tone showing nothing but respect for his blonde-haired leader, "But thanks to him, the vast majority of the clan are unsided, whilst there are small minorities that side with Fugaku-sama and others that wish for the clan to wait to see what more is being done since relations have improved, slowly, but improved nonetheless."

Minato gave a thankful nod towards Shisui, who merely returned it with one of his own, 'That's one splendid shinobi right there. Maybe in a couple of years he would be able to replace me.' But that thought was far too out in the future. Right now, he needed to be in the present and deal with this current dilemma.

Danzo scowled mentally but kept his silence on the matter.

"I'll assign an Anbu to provide support." Minato told Shisui, "I'm counting on you Shisui."

Shisui nodded, "Yes, Hokage-sama." He said before vanishing within a smokeless Shunshin.

Minato turned his attention back to Danzo, "I hope that was enough to assuade whatever fears you have Danzo-san."

Danzo merely got up from his seat and gave him a nod, "Yes. That would do I suppose." He said as he turned and made his way towards the door, his cane tapping on the ground.

"It was a pleasure seeing you today Danzo-san." Minato said, "Goodbye."

Danzo reached the door and with his one good arm, opened it, "And goodbye to you to Hokage-sama." He said as he closed the door behind him.

Minato watched the door close and continued to watch it for several seconds before leaning back and tapping on his window.

The window slipped open before a silver-haired Anbu entered the office, standing in front Minato, "Hokage-sama." Kakashi's usually nonchalant voice greeted his superior.

"Kakashi," Minato greeted his former student in return, "I've got a mission for you."

"What is it?"

"I want you to tail Shisui."

Kakashi raised an unseen eyebrow behind his mask. Tail Shisui? He had heard the meeting that Minato and Danzo had, and knew about the Uchiha situation. He was more than observant enough to notice such things.

And the fact that Minato trusted him with such information showed how much trust his former sensei had in him. If one would compare, the relationship between Minato and Kakashi was the same type of relationship that Hiruzen had with Jiraiya.

Minato had trusted Shisui to stop whatever machinations Fugaku may try to play during the Uchiha assembly, so why was he needed to tail him? And he doubted that he was the Anbu that was going to provide support to the young Uchiha, there was another, more qualified Anbu for that role.

"...You think something is going to happen to Shisui?" Kakashi said after a while. That was the only reason he could think of that would require him to tail after the Konoha jounin. That something might come to interfere with his mission.

"Observant as always Kakashi." Minato praised his former ward, "Keep that up, and I may just have to make you Hokage just out of principle."

"Don't joke about that sensei." Being Hokage was definitely something that was not on his to do list. He felt like he didn't deserve such a title, and with the responsibilities that came along with it, "There are other more qualified shinobi for the role that are still developing." Shisui and Itachi being some to name a few, "And you still have some years left in you. You're not that old yet."

"Well, I like to plan for the future." Minato mused, "But back to business, I want you to tail Shisui. You should get on it now."

Kakashi nodded his head and disappeared in his own Shunshin. Minato sighed as he rubbed his eyes. He hoped that whatever bad feeling he was having regarding the young Uchiha he had trusted the future of the village was nothing more than a bad feeling, rather than an omen.

If it wasn't, he had one of his men on the job. Now all he needed to do was get Shisui's support up to speed on his next mission. He was rather sure they wouldn't mind.

* * *

><p><span>Konoha Shinobi<span>

Uchiha Shisui

**Ninjutsu: 4.5**

**Taijutsu: 5**

**Genjutsu: 5**

**Intelligence: 4.5**

**Strength: 3.5**

**Speed: 4.5**

**Stamina: 3.5**

**Hand Seals: 4**

**Total: 34.5**

Uchiha Itachi

**Ninjutsu: 5**

**Taijutsu: 5**

**Genjutsu: 5**

**Intelligence: 5**

**Strength: 3.5**

**Speed: 5**

**Stamina: 2.5**

**Hand Seals: 5**

**Total: 35.5**

Uchiha Fugaku (Forgot about him, my bad :L)

**Ninjutsu: 4**

**Taijutsu: 4**

**Genjutsu: 3**

**Intelligence: 3.5**

**Strength: 3**

**Speed: 4**

**Stamina: 3.5**

**Hand Seals: 4**

**Total: 29**

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Well another chapter for you guys, yey!<strong>

**Anyway, next chapter is probably going to be the resolution to the whole Uchiha affair. How will it end? Well, you're going to have to find out!**

**Leave a review! **

**Raiden out.**


	8. Pulling Out The Big Guns

**Do you people love me or what? Not even more than a day after my last update, I update again!? Jeez, I had so much free time, I thought, why not? Oh well, enjoy the story!**

**Last of Ancients: You're right on the money with the Naruto too young. And I couldn't really write from Naruto's perspective with all these important stuff happening you know?**

**tgsms177: Well, I'm not a fan of it either. Really, I'm not. But Naruto's best friend role has already been filled. Sasuke at best would be a that friend he tolerates but has moments with, if you know what I mean.**

**Kit: I hope my resolution managed to meet your expectations.**

**Hugo0974: Are we talking about the very same Itachi that managed to wipe out the near entirety of his clan with the help of Obito at the same age? The one that managed to defeat Orochimaru, also around that age? I know it may seem extreme, but Itachi was basically walking badassery by the time he was thirteen and after he left the village, he joined Akatsuki not soon afterwards. I think the stats for him reflected his abilities well enough at this age. **

**I apologise if my response sounds a bit rude. I just thought I should point out those things. But thanks for the criticism anyway. Much obliged, I'll take more in the future!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto...or anything in general. Even this laptop. It's actually my sisters.**

* * *

><p><strong><span>Chapter 8 - Pulling Out The Big Guns<span>**

When it came to missions, a panel would review them and then after taking into account mission objectives and threat level involved in such missions, they would be assigned a rank, and that rank would also indicate the amount of money the client will have to pay for their mission request to be done.

And when that is done, the majority of the time, most missions would be placed into the general pool were individual ninja or squads would come and request one, or sometimes, be summoned to complete one.

But there are special cases. Missions of a...delicate nature so to say, that would require people with particular skills to carry them out.

Such missions mostly involved some sort of objectionable objective.

Missions involving some sort of stealth element such as spying could be put into that category. And when it came to the whole spying game, most mission reviewers would immediately come with two names when it came to people that were highly vaunted for their abilities in stealth.

Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Itachi.

Simply because, the two of them, unless they made their presence known, you wouldn't even know they were watching or stalking their target without some prior notice. There were very few people that could notice that they were being stalked by either one of these exemplar of shinobi.

And it showed as Kakashi had managed to quickly track down and then proceed to tail Shisui not long after his meeting with his former jounin-sensei. Even someone of Shisui's calibre and talents would have trouble noticing that they were being tailed by him, if he kept a suitable enough distance and didn't give himself away.

Which he hadn't. That would have been such a rookie thing to do.

Having overheard what he needed to know during the meeting Minato had with Danzo, Kakashi knew that Shisui should have been heading towards his clans ground. Why he was heading towards the back-end of the village was beyond him.

But he figured if he continued to chase after him, he would eventually learn to where he was going. It wasn't as if there was a time constraint on the mission. Well, there was, but from his knowledge, the assembly wouldn't happen at least for a couple more hours.

So Shisui had time to do whatever activity he wanted to do in the direction he was heading.

Kakashi let out a silent sigh as he continued to traverse through the tree tops at a safe distance away from his target, he was just a lowly Anbu captain, why did he have to deal with this kind of stuff?

XxX

(Konoha - With Naruto)

Having been only been able to mess with Sasuke only for a couple of hours before he and Shikamaru had to leave due to Mikoto telling them they had clan rituals later on, Naruto and Shikamaru had made their own way out of the clan district.

Not long afterwards, a member of the Nara clan came looking for Shikamaru, to inform him that he was being called back to his house. Apparently, he had stayed out of the house long enough for him to be admitted entrance.

Shikamaru had quickly dropped what he was doing and headed home, leaving Naruto only with a quick goodbye. And that was with his back turned. The bastard hadn't even said it face to face. How rude.

Not knowing what to do, Naruto had taken a walk about the village, before heading towards his favourite food stand. Even without any money, Naruto had a tab to put all of his expenses into with that particular food stand. His tab being his dad. Who would have paid everything off, because he was good hearted guy like that.

Once more, feeling bored, Naruto decided he would go back home and train himself. He was getting close with that tree walking exercise. He just knew it. He sticked onto the tree for longer with each go he went, and he was confident he would soon be able to stick to it without falling off.

"Oi gaki."

Naruto blinked as he got out of his musings to turn his head to face the person who had called out to him. He blinked before his eyes widened and his expression lightened up, "Jiraiya-kyofu! Sarutobi-jiji!" The blonde said happily as he quickly made his way towards Jiraiya and Hiruzen.

He came to a skidding halt in front of them, "What are you doing here?" He asked as he looked up at Jiraiya. Man, why was his godfather so tall? What did he eat to get that tall? He hoped his was that tall when he was older, just looking down on everybody seemed like something that was right up his alley, "I thought you said you weren't going to be in the village for a while?"

Naruto was aware that Jiraiya's ninja duties made him go off away from the village every now and then for long periods of time. Whenever he left, he never came back quickly, like right now. He had only left a month or so ago.

Jiraiya shrugged, "I was in the area. Thought I would come and visit some people before hitting the old dusty trail once more."

Naruto didn't believe the man, "You were here to peek again weren't you?"

The long-haired man just looked down at Naruto, "No respect. No respect at all."

Hiruzen laughed chuckled lightly to himself, putting out his pipe for the benefit of the small boy in front of him, "What are you doing out late by yourself anyway Naruto-kun?"

"I'm never alone." Naruto said off-handedly, "I know about that Anbu guy...or girl that always follows me around." As far as he was concerned, that meant he could go anywhere he wanted and do whatever he wanted until it was midnight. He always had some sort of babysitter on his case anyway.

"That's not really an excuse Naruto-kun." Hiruzen lightly reprimanded the younger blonde, "They're there for your safety. Staying out late isn't good for your safety."

Naruto looked up to the sky, that was beginning to show the orange tint of dusk approaching, "But there's still daylight…" He said with a slight childish frown on his features, "It's not night-time yet."

Jiraiya chuckled to himself, "Give it up sensei. The kid is rather stubborn when it comes to stuff like this." He advised to his jounin sensei from years ago, "Something he clearly picked up from his mother."

"Well, I'd rather not be a pushover like my dad." Naruto retorted as he stuck out his tongue at his godfather.

"That's not nice," Jiraiya said, his tone belying his words, "Your dad's not a pushover."

"Yeah…" Naruto began unbelievingly. He will believe that the day his dad actually put his foot down on some of the things he did. Sometimes, he just pranked the village to see how far he could push his old man before he finally told him to calm it, "Sure…"

XxX

Minato was idly sitting in his office, carrying out the duties of his office before slowly stopping and raising his head, a dry look plastered on his face, "...Naruto is probably making fun of me again…" It was sort of sad that his son made fun of him any chance he got. Sort of like how Kushina did every single time, they were together, even long before that, "...At least he doesn't think I'm flaky."

XxX

"Well whatever." Jiraiya said as he waved off the subject of their talk, "Since you're doing nothing, come with us. Might as well teach you something whilst I'm here."

At that, Naruto snapped his fingers in remembrance of something, "Hey, you said you were going to teach me something the last time you were here before you left!" He crossed his arms rather angrily, glaring at his godfather, "And you never did!"

Jiraiya blinked as he remembered something along them lines before trying to think of an excuse or something that would stop the kid from glaring at him, "...I was busy?" He tried to defend himself, which was rather poor due to the fact that his excuse was rather flimsy.

Naruto closed his eyes and linked his arms behind his head, "Well, you're not busy now." The blonde pointed out, "So you're teaching me now." He finished off. His tone conveying there was no way out of this for the man.

"Urgh…" Sometimes, Jiraiya wished that Naruto was a little bit more like his dad and little bit less like his mom, "Yeah, okay, whatever. Come along then." He finally said as he began to walk down the street, an amused Hiruzen walking beside his pupil and a happily grinning Naruto eagerly following beside him, his little feet moving quickly to try and keep level with the longer feet of his companions.

"So Naruto-kun, so how's your training going?" Hiruzen asked as he made light conversation with the younger boy.

Naruto looked up into the sky with a thoughtful look, "Not bad." The eight year old said, "Dad has been making me do some real hard stuff though."

"Like what?"

Naruto winced slightly as he rubbed his head, remembering the things he had been doing earlier in the day, "Chakra control. I have to run up a tree until I can stand on it and not fall back down to the ground. That stuff hurts."

Hiruzen chuckled as he enjoyed the walk with the two other males, "Yes, I would think so too. I remember when I had to do the same thing when I was a genin. The same for Jiraiya-kun."

Jiraiya nodded, a small smirk on his face, "Of course being the awesome being that I am, I didn't pathetically fall off the tree." He glanced down at Naruto with a sly look and smirk, "Unlike you I assume." He finished off as he enjoyed the angry look he was receiving from Naruto. Messing with the little blonde kid was always one way to pass of the time.

"Hm," The former Hokage of Konoha hummed in thought, "That's not how I remember it. If I'm not wrong, you were the last of the three to actually complete it." Hiruzen finished off, knocking Jiraiya off the high horse he was riding.

Jiraiya's expression dropped to a dry one as he saw Naruto grin at him widely, "Last one huh? You must suck then."

Jiraiya huffed and crossed his arms, "In my defence, I had the most chakra out of my entire team. You trying running up a stupid tree with enough chakra for a couple of ninjas."

Naruto looked up at his godfather, "So you have a lot of chakra?"

Jiraiya puffed out his chest in pride, "Damn right I do brat. Even more chakra than this old man right here."

"Yes," Hiruzen began slowly, "The emphasis being on old Jiraiya-kun." Just like how muscles deteriorated with age, the same could be said about chakra. Although the effects could be reduced by constant training and meditation, "I'm sure you would suffer from the same thing in the future."

"Not me, I'll stay my sprightly young thirty something age until the end of the world!"

Naruto had something to voice about the statement Jiraiya just gave, "Aren't you like, I don't know, forty something?" There was no way Jiraiya was in his thirties. His dad was in his thirties, and he didn't even have any of the wrinkles Jiraiya was starting to spot.

Hiruzen smirked in amusement, "43 actually."

"Dammit sensei."

Naruto laughed at his godfather's misfortune before going back to the original subject of the conversation, "And apart from that, I've been working on my taijutsu, stuff like speed and reaction times." That was a given considering who his father was. Sparring with his father, and sometimes Jiraiya or Kakashi (who just lazily moved out of the way of every single thing Naruto tried on the man) always ended up with Naruto's reflexes improving bit by bit. He was adamant he could now slowly, but surely see that stupid finger that always poked on his pressure points, "Then there's hand signs. I can do them really fast now!" He finished off with a large grin on his face.

"Really now?" Hiruzen said, sounding rather impressed, "Why don't you give us a show?"

Naruto nodded his head eagerly before going through all the twelve hand signs at the fastest speed he could do it at...which in comparison to the older ninja wasn't really that fast at all. In the amount of time it had taken Naruto to do the hand signs, they could have done hand signs for several jutsu already.

But then again, this was an eight year old boy, and the speed he had done them was rather impressive for his age.

"Impressive Naruto-kun." Hiruzen lightly praised the blonde boy, getting him to laugh sheepishly, "At the rate you're going, I'm sure you're going to make Godaime in the future."

"Yeah, definitely impressive." Jiraiya joined in with the praise. Of course, Jiraiya being Jiraiya, couldn't help but want to knock a few blocks of Naruto's party wagon, "For an eight year old of course. A proper ninja would have done all those hand seals in nanoseconds."

Hiruzen managed to stop himself from facepalming at his students statement.

Naruto's face dropped as he looked dryly at his godfather, "Not you too…"

The legendary ninja raised an eyebrow in curiosity at his godson's rather strange reaction, "What about me?"

"You're _that_ guy aren't you?" Naruto more or less stated. He then turned his attention towards Hiruzen, "Hey jiji, was Jiraiya-kyofu _that_ guy back when he was your student?" He asked, ignoring the look Jiraiya was giving him.

Hiruzen smirked in amusement as he rubbed his chin in thought, "I wouldn't know. But I do believe he had his moments of being _that_ guy."

Jiraiya, quickly catching up on the conversation, quickly turned his head to look between his godson and his former genin sensei, "Oh come on sensei!" He let out in defiance, "You know that's bullshit!" Orochimaru had definitely been that guy. His entire personality was molded around being _that_ guy.

"Well, I do believe that's the reason why I said 'moments' no?"

"But I _never_," He stressed the word, "Had moments of being that guy."

Jiraiya blinked when he felt someone pat him on his back, and judging from how far down his back it was. He guessed it was Naruto. He looked down at wasn't disappointed.

Naruto was giving his godfather a shit eating grin, "It's alright Jiraiya-kyofu. There's nothing wrong with being _that_ guy." He stopped patting his back and walked onwards, his hands linked behind his head, "Nothing wrong with it all."

Jiraiya, having stopped walking when he was accused of being _that_ sort of person, gaped at the backs of his godson and student. He wanted to refute them, go out swinging till the very end but instead, he decided to just take it.

...But he wasn't going to take it softly, "You guys suck."

XxX

When Naruto had met Hiruzen and Jiraiya, he hadn't exactly asked them where they had been heading too. And thus after following them, without taking in his surroundings as he continued to speak with both men he admired, he had soon found himself in the clan district, more specifically the Sarutobi compound.

Well, that should have been obvious to him that they would have been heading here. To his knowledge, Jiraiya lived to his hermit title as he didn't have a home. He always stayed as a guest at their house or somewhere else during his time in the village.

So if they were going somewhere, why not go to your old sensei's home?

Naruto and Jiraiya could be found in the back garden of the house, the legendary white haired ninja finally going good on his promise to teach Naruto something.

...Several weeks after promising him.

"Alright brat, since you asked for a jutsu, let me teach you one of my original ones." Jiraiya said as he stared blankly at Naruto, who might as well be jumping up and down with the fact that he couldn't stand still, '...Well, at least it'll take him quite some time to get this one.' Reason being that he was rather short on one of the requirements of this particular jutsu.

Naruto's eyes widened even more so, "One of your originals? Is it cool? Is it super awesome? What does it do?" He shot out those questions in rapid succession.

Jiraiya sweatdropped, "Jeez brat, calm down. Anyway the jutsu is called Hari Jizo (Needle Jizo). It's a pretty handy thing to have when it comes to defence and offence." He explained to Naruto before bringing his hands together, "The hand seals for the jutsu are Tiger, Horse, Boar, Ram, Rat, Snake." He said as he went through each hand seal slowly, making sure Naruto got them, "Get that?"

Naruto nodded as he brought up his own hands together and went through the seals himself, "Tiger, Horse, Boar, Ram, Rat and Snake." He said with each seal.

Jiraiya nodded, "Right, after moulding the chakra, channel it to your hair to quickly grow it and then manipulate it cover your body like a shield." He said as he showed it to the younger blonde.

Naruto watched as Jiraiya's long white hair grew and encompassed his body, leaving only his eyes to be seen. His blue eyes widened at the sight, "Awesome!" That jutsu looked really nice to have when trying to defend himself. He went to poke the hair before having to pull away his hand quickly when he noticed the hair strands were really hard and sharp, "Ouch!"

"Yeah…" Jiraiya chuckled as he released his jutsu and allowed his hair to go back to its normal length, "I forgot to mention that you should also channel your chakra to make it hard as steel and the hair strands sharp like needles."

Naruto looked up to his godfather as he sucked his finger, "Why?"

"Well," Jiraiya began as he thought about how to reply, "How do you think it would feel if someone punched a stack of needles."

Naruto winced in thought, "Painful."

"Exactly the point." Jiraiya remarked and took a step back, "Alright, why don't you give it a go? Remember, channel chakra to your hair, grow it out, cover your body, hard as steel and sharp as needles."

Naruto nodded before concentrating as he went through the seals of the jutsu he was being taught, 'Alright, chakra to the hair, grow it out, cover body, hard as steel and sharp as needles. I can do this.' He chanted to himself as he came to the last seal and held it, "Hari Jizo (Needle Jizo)!"

Jiraiya watched with an amused expression at Naruto's first attempt at his jutsu, "Well…" He began slowly as he struggled to keep back a bark of laughter, "It's not that bad." A small bit of laughter escaping his lips.

"Oh shut up Jiraiya-kyofu!" Naruto snapped at the older male, before having to quickly cough out his hair that had gone into his mouth.

The results of the jutsu had only managed to do one thing. Instead of being covered in steel-like, sharp as needles hair, his hair had just grown up to below shoulder length and the majority of his face was covered by his bangs.

Naruto blew away his bangs that were trying to suffocate him, "How do I cancel it?"

Jiraiya, who had now decided to just laugh at the expense of his godson, could only ask him to repeat his question, his own laughter drowning out Naruto's question, "What?"

Naruto blew out his bangs once more, before repeating his question, "How the hell do I cancel this thing!?" He demanded, having to stop every now and then to either spit out his hair or blow it away. Kami, how did Ino deal with this? Didn't that lone bang of hers get annoying from time to time?

"You can either cancel your chakra to your hair or reverse the flow of it away from your hair." Jiraiya answered inbetween chuckles, "But I think you should keep your hair like that. It suits you." He finished off, unable to maintain a straight face.

"Oh shut up Jiraiya-kyofu." Naruto said with an irritated tone in his voice as he did what he had been told. Thankfully, he had been taught how to control his own internal flow of chakra to allow him to reverse the effects of the jutsu that had messed up his hair.

Naruto scratched his hair as he looked at Jiraiya irritably, "Alright, that jutsu sucked. You have to teach me another one."

Jiraiya managed to get himself under some semblance of control, "What? Why do I have to do that? It's not my fault you did it wrong. Just keep practicing it, I'm sure you will have it down sooner or later."

"No. It sucked. Plain and simple." Naruto reiterated, "And anyway, I get the feeling I would have to grow out my hair just to be able to use it." He said as he pulled on one of his bangs, strange, his bangs weren't that long before he did that stupid jutsu.

"Yeah, so?"

"Ponytails suck."

"Oh that is a great idea kid," Jiraiya began rather sarcastically, "Insult the person that you want to teach you. Great way to make him teach you."

Naruto realised his mistake and looked at his godfather with big, blue, pleading eyes, "...I'm sorry."

Jiraiya just scoffed as he looked away, "Nice try kid."

"Aww come on, I'm sorry!" Naruto whined as he continued to try and plead with his godfather, "I'm really, really sorry. Can't you just teach me another jutsu?"

The white haired ninja shook his head, "Nop, you hurt my feelings by making fun of my ponytail." His ponytail was utterly stylish in his own humble opinion. He wasn't going to have some snort nosed brat make fun of it.

Naruto just looked at Jiraiya before shrugging, "Alright then, if you aren't going to teach me, then I'll go ask Hiruzen-jiji." He stated simply enough as he turned on his heel and made his way towards the house that said elderly person was currently residing in.

Jiraiya snorted, "What makes you think the old man would teach you anything?"

Naruto grinned as he continued walking towards the house, "Because jiji loves me."

Ah dammit, the brat had a point. For some reason, his sensei had a soft spot for that damned brat, even though he already had another grandson. Oh well, Naruto wasn't his problem anymore, he was now Hiruzen's. He had done his part in showing him a jutsu and even though Naruto had said the jutsu sucked, he knew for certain the blonde would train until he got the jutsu down to a 'T'.

Now since he found himself free for the rest of the day, maybe he could go down to the bathhouses and do some research? Yeah, that definitely sounded like a good idea. A really good idea.

After all, his books didn't write themselves, and his numerous amount of fans were patiently waiting for the next installment in his excellent book series.

XxX

(With Kakashi)

Kakashi was crouched on a tree branch that was positioned near the edge of the forest line he was currently occupying. He couldn't get any closer to his target without alerting Shisui that he was there simply because there was no where for him to conceal himself in the large open, grass area that the forest came to a halt too.

He doubted a jutsu like the Meisaigakure no Jutsu (Hiding with Camouflage Jutsu) would be of any help at the moment. Shisui's Sharingan, if he had it active would immediately notice his chakra flow and the active chakra being used to conceal his presence.

Stupid doujutsu…

Well, he couldn't complain. He had a doujutsu of his own. Well, not his own per se, but one that was given to him by a friend of his as a gift ages ago.

And that stupid doujutsu had saved his life more times than he would care to count. So he really couldn't call the doujutsu stupid. Wait, he was getting off track here, he had to get his head back in the game.

With that thought, he looked back at Shisui who was currently standing outside of what seemed like a temple, 'He's waiting for someone.' That much was obvious by the way he was standing.

But who was he waiting for? Was it his Anbu support? He doubted it. A more practical location would have been chosen than this far out of the way area. It would have been somewhere close to their mission location like the outskirts of the Uchiha district.

So he was waiting for someone else. But who was the million ryo question that was going through his head.

He didn't have to wait long though before his eyes widened slightly when he saw the person Shisui was waiting for make his appearance.

'Danzo...'

This couldn't be good. Danzo was the shadiest of the shadiest. He knew of the man's apparent epitaph as the Shinobi no Yami (Darkness of the Shinobi). For seemingly a crippled old man who served as an advisor to the Hokage, he had a lot of pull in some areas and involved in things that could force many to be sick.

'I don't like this...'

Why would Danzo want to meet with Shisui? And especially at this very time when he was about to set off on a mission that was very important to the village?

This whole thing was screaming various levels of suspicious in all kinds of manner.

XxX

(With Shisui & Danzo)

Shisui turned to face the man who had summoned him when he heard the familial tap of Danzo's cane on the ground, "What is it Danzo-sama?" He asked as he looked at the man who was getting nearer, "The assembly will be starting soon and I'll have to go back soon enough."

Danzo came to a halt a short distance away from Shisui, his expression neutral and his tone impassive as he spoke, "I merely wanted to ask, even if you used your jutsu on Fugaku to co-operate, what will you do if the village doesn't change?"

"I have faith in Minato-sama." Shisui replied with an earnest tone in his voice, "He has already done many things to try and change the village for the Uchiha clan. It's only the clan that hasn't been willing to change."

Minato had shown that he was more than willing to extend the olive branch to the clan, and too Fugaku especially, but it was Fugaku himself who was being stubborn in the entire matter. Clans were rather simple when you went underneath the whole facades they put up to outsiders, just like villages were simple in their own way.

Just like a village, a clan will follow the direction of the current clan leader, no matter the opinions of its members. But that's where it diverged from a village. Whilst in a village, if a bad leader appeared that would drive the village in a bad direction, it would be more than likely people would stand up against the direction.

Clans on the other hand were more authoritarian in that standard, one of the examples being the Hyuuga clan. The opinions of the Branch Family always came second to the opinions of the Main Family.

If the Main Family wanted to take the clan in one direction, they will, taking little note of any Branch Family objections.

Danzo's eye squinted open slightly, "Even if the Yondaime is satisfied, the mistrust of Konoha won't just go away."

A small, solemn smile came onto Shisui's expression, "I realise that. But in time, if our clan proves itself like it has been lately, the mistrust would surely go aw-."

"Besides," Danzo cut in sternly, interrupting Shisui as he spoke, "Someone who's always suspicious like me will never change."

Shisui blinked in surprise, "What do you mean Danzo-sama?" The direction where this conversation was starting to darken, and he wasn't liking it.

"I'm asking," Danzo began as he lowered his head, "If the time came, would you use your Kotoamatsukami on me too?" The elder shinobi's cane hit the floor as Danzo began to raise his one good arm.

"What, why would-!" Shisui immediately stopped speaking and looked in the direction of the treeline, his hand having instinctively gone for the tanto on his back, "We're being watched Danzo-sama."

Danzo had also stopped moving to look in the direction Shisui was staring in, his brows narrowed in the tree line, "Yes I've noticed." The elder stated before bending down and picking up his cane, "Well, this meeting has run its course. I believe you had a mission to attend to did you not?"

Shisui scanned the tree line with his Sharingan active once more, whoever had been watching them was now gone. He turned to face Danzo who was walking away from him, "Eh yes. I'll be going now Danzo-sama." He said as he left in a Shunshin.

Danzo walked away from the meeting point slowly. He had summoned Shisui here to complete two objectives. To finally put an end to the Uchiha problem that had been troubling Konoha for so long by making Shisui disappear and not use his jutsu on Fugaku, thus forcing Minato to use whatever hand he had in play in case the Uchiha couldn't be controlled anymore.

And his secondary being to gain Shisui's eyes. The Kotoamatsukami would have been an excellent addition to his arsenal. He could have used it on Minato to slowly force his will on him, and in time, get him to put the Kyuubi jinchuuriki that was his son under his care.

Leaving it in the hands of the blonde Hokage was a mistake. If Minato had died that night, eight years ago, his chances of obtaining the Kyuubi would have been higher. But with his survival…

Well, nothing could be done about it.

"Fuu."

At that utterance from the elder, a ninja appeared kneeling in front of him, dressed in the attire of Anbu, cloak and mask present, "Yes Danzo-sama?" He said, in a tone that didn't hold any sort of feeling or emotion in it.

Anbu were trained to control their emotions, but not to the extent that they sounded completely devoid of such human things. This simple fact would prove that this Anbu didn't serve in the main division of the Anbu corps. He belonged in the secretive Ne subdivision.

"Why did you not apprehend the intruder?" Danzo asked, his voice not holding the irritation he was feeling, the only visible sign being the slightly creaking from his cane as it buckled under the pressure of his grip.

"I apologise Danzo-sama." Fu apologised, "But I did not sense him until the intruder had made himself known."

Danzo stayed quiet, "...Made himself known?"

Fu nodded, "Yes, before you acted, the intruder flared his chakra."

Ah…

So that was it? Danzo couldn't help but admire it. He knew Namikaze was dangerous, but who would have known he would actually have someone tail after Shisui to make sure he completed his mission without fail?

Well, he had to give him that. So Namikaze didn't trust him did he? Well, at least it showed that he took initiative if the situation called for it.

The intruder was probably Hatake Kakashi, that was the only Anbu he could name from the top of his head that would be able to go so long without being noticed. Itachi was the other, but he didn't hold the trust that Namikaze had in Sakumo's scion.

Whether he would congratulate Namikaze on his actions would come later. This proved a problem at the moment. Hatake would have only let his presence known if he felt that something was about to happen. Something that went against his orders to keep an eye on Shisui.

'He must have realised my intention when I began to move for Shisui's Sharingan.' The question now was how would the Yondaime respond to this? He would have to prepare his emergency scenarios for now. There was no point in acting rashly.

All Hatake had was conjecture. That was not enough to prove him of any wrong doings on his part.

XxX

Well, that had been a harrowing experience. Kakashi never wanted to do that again. The moment he felt something was about to happen, he had flared his chakra high enough to alert Shisui and Danzo that there was someone in the area.

That had been enough to force whatever move Danzo was about to do off. Well, he didn't really know if Danzo was going to do something. The man had just dropped his cane to the ground and then was simply, but slowly raising his arm.

That wasn't suspicious at all. Not at all.

But then again, his instincts told him that he should act, because something that wasn't going to be top drawer was about to happen. And act he did.

Only to immediately notice his position be enclosed on by several signatures.

Yeah...something had definitely been planned on happening that involved Shisui and Danzo. The fact that the signatures were all wearing Anbu masks and attire showed that something of the unsavoury sort had been in the works.

Well, it didn't matter now. Shisui was gone and Danzo had left.

His paycheck had better be pretty damn big after this entire scenario. He didn't get paid enough for this stuff.

XxX

(Forest Outside Naka Shrine)

Itachi stood in his Anbu attire, eyes closed as he leaned against a large boulder, "You're late." The inscrutable teenager stated as he opened his eyes to look at the new arrival in the area.

Shisui dropped to the forest floor and wiped his brow to rid himself of the sweat he had worked up as he quickly made his way back, "Yeah," He began sheepishly, "Sorry, got caught up in something."

Itachi raised an eyebrow. There was more to this, but that would be for later. Right now, they both had a mission of grave importance to their clan and village to complete, "Come on. Let's go." He said in monotone as he led the way.

Shisui nodded and caught up to walk beside him.

"You don't seem surprised that your support is me." Itachi said after a while.

Shisui merely smirked, "Who else could it be?" It wasn't really that hard to figure out. It had to be someone well versed in the ins and outs of the Uchiha district, including the security measures and everything else.

"Kakashi-sempai." Itachi suggested.

The older of the two teenagers chuckled to himself as he shook his head lightly, "Nah, Kakashi-san had another mission today." A mission that had probably stopped some sort of incident happening, "Have I ever told you how much I admire Hokage-sama?" The man had to be some sort of damn seer if he was able to foresee something happening to him and place Kakashi as his watch dog.

Itachi just looked at Shisui curiously. Where did that come from? Shisui held the Hokage's in high esteem, but he never personally venerated one, "No…" He began slowly, "This is the first time I'm hearing of it."

Shisui grinned toothily, "Then have I got something to tell you."

Itachi shook his head in slight amusement, "You can tell me after we're done with this."

"I'll hold you too that."

With the casual chatter aside for one minute, it was time to get to the real subject of conversation, "Since I am technically on a mission and unable to attend todays assembly, I'll be hidden in the shadows."

The messy haired Uchiha nodded his head, "Yeah, yeah. I know. I'll use Kotoamatsukami only when Fugaku-sama tries to incite a rebellion."

Itachi thought about it and shook his head, "No."

Shisui turned his head to face him as they continued walking with a raised eyebrow, "No?" He could see the Shrine in the distance through the clearing of the trees. They had to quickly get over the technicalities before they reached that point.

Itachi nodded, "No. Use it before he starts speaking." He said as he went into further explanation, "Our clansmen may find it strange that one minute, he's talking about a rebellion and the next, cooperation." Foul play would be suspected, and that suspect would none other be the village itself.

It wasn't like that was out of the realms of possibilities. Genjutsu might be a thing associated with the Uchiha clan, but there was also a clan in the village that was well known for their mental abilities.

And unlike their clan, that clan was trusted without equal.

"Good point." Shisui said as he nodded in agreement. That could have put a pickle into things, "I'll use it before then." They reached the edge of the forest and Shisui turned to face Itachi, "Alright then, wish me good luck."

Itachi unhooked his mask from his belt and placed it on his face, "There's no need. You'll come out successful from this mission." He was confident of that. Shisui was the only person he had undeniable confidence in. He could count on him to complete a task without fail.

Shisui smiled as he nodded, "Alright then, well see ya." The Uchiha stated as he came out of the clearing and seamlessly joined into the group of other Uchiha heading towards the Shrine.

Itachi watched him disappear into the crowd before silently leaving the area, no being having ever sensed his presence at all.

XxX

(Hokage's Office)

"Well done Kakashi." Minato congratulated with a smile on his face, "I knew I could trust you with this."

Kakashi merely waved the praise away, "Meh, it wasn't that hard at all."

After interfering with the meeting between Danzo and Shisui and safe with the knowledge that Danzo would have already figured him out as the observer and that he wouldn't try anything of an action such as this on Shisui, Kakashi had made his way back to the village to report to Minato.

Minato rolled his eyes, "Oh don't be so humble. Be proud of yourself. You just managed to stop the worst possible outcome from occurring."

Kakashi just looked at his sensei, "The worst possible outcome?" He repeated his leader's words, "Don't say that. That sounds really cliched."

Minato laughed lightly, "Well, I thought that suited the situation best." He wasn't exactly aware of what the worst possible outcome was, so it was better to use such a generic term.

"So I take it nothing will happen with Danzo?"

The mood in the room changed immediately with that question. Minato nodded his head with a slight scowl on his face, "Unfortunately yes. All you have is conjecture. I can't move on the basis that you thought something bad will happen because 'Danzo dropped his cane and was raising his hand'." He sighed as he leaned into his chair and rubbed his temple, "Sounds rather silly doesn't it?"

"Yeah, it does, doesn't it?" The masked Anbu drawled out, realising his own folly in asking the question.

"I can't even put pressure on him at all with this knowledge." Danzo had a lot of supporters in the village. His way of thinking was rather popular, but then again, in every village and country there was bound to be people swayed by extreme views, "This isn't exactly as big as the whole affair involving Tenzo." Even the fact that he had probably been trying to interfere with an important matter that involved the entire village.

Kakashi frowned as that particular memory came to the surface of his mind. After his teams encounter with Tenzo, and with the knowledge that several people had seen his abilities in action and that his forces were seen working with foreign shinobi that were being watched by Konoha and had attacked Konoha forces with intent to kill. Danzo was forced to hand-over information on his subdivision.

This information included names, abilities and ranks of the ninja under his control. The list was shorter than expected, but to anyone with the right amount of common sense, that didn't fool anyone.

Minato, along with many others, knew that Danzo had unregistered ninja under his command. Information on his organisation hadn't been what Minato was after when he decided to offer Danzo an olive branch on the whole his forces attacking his matter. That information was practically worthless to him, he knew very well Danzo hadn't even given him everything that he wanted to have.

From the entire thing, he wanted only two things, Kinoe or Tenzo as he was now called, transferred into the general forces. How Tenzo gained his Mokuton abilities, Minato didn't care even though he along with others had a sneaking suspicion Orochimaru was involved. Something like the Mokuton couldn't be under the control of Danzo (Naruto and himself were one of the main driving force for this stipulation with Hiruzen being particularly adamant).

And the secondary requirement was that Danzo's recruiting pools were hit hard. Originally, Ne could openly recruit from the clans and general population, and the clans themselves couldn't do anything about it without direct intervention from the Hokage. And Minato himself couldn't intervene too much, whether he liked it or not.

But now, Ne wasn't allowed to recruit from any of the clans, except for the Shimura clan of course, the clan Danzo was the head of and from the general population. Even with these stipulations, Minato knew that wouldn't stop Danzo from still being able to get recruits into his organisation.

'He can't get them from the village orphanages, so it would probably have to be from the surrounding area.' Where he had no control as that was in the delegation of the various nobles entrusted by the daimyo to look after. He only had control in military matters involving ninja.

"How is Tenzo anyway?" Minato finally asked after rousing from his thoughts. He had spoken a few times with the Anbu and got on well amicably with the now grown man. But it was Kakashi who he was particularly close too.

Kakashi shrugged his shoulders, "As good as he can be." He sighed underneath his mask, "Kinda gets on me though to be more punctual…"

Minato raised a smile, "Then why don't you?"

"Not my style." Was the lazy reply from one of his top ninja.

Minato laughed lightly, "Well, you can go now. Oh pay a visit some time would you? Naruto is rather fond of you."

"He only likes me because I buy him ramen." Which he would put the expenses on the Anbu expenses list. And since he was a captain, no-one could really say anything about the matter. Even if the Anbu commander always looked at his disapprovingly.

"Didn't you know? The quickest way to a man's heart is through his stomach."

"Funny." Kakashi replied as he made his way towards the window.

Minato watched him in rapt amusement, "There's a door." He said as he indicated towards the room's portal with a nod of his head.

Kakashi slid open the window and jumped on the sill, "But the window is so much more fun." He waved lazily at his village leader, Well, later sensei. Got some reading to do." He said in parting as he jumped out.

Minato shook his head in amusement, 'Well, at least he isn't all moody as he used to be.'

XxX

(Untold Amount of Time Later - Mountains' Graveyard)

A fist crashed into a wall with enough force behind it to cause a crack in the hard, rocky surface of the material it was composed of. The masked man, known as Madara to Konan and Pein, continued to hold his fist inside the small crater he had caused.

His reason for lashing out on the wall was that his planning to have the Uchiha clan removed from the equation that had been in the works for the past eight years had been flushed down the drain, "Dammit all..." He growled as he retracted his shaking fist away from the wall.

Why couldn't he have just been a selfless hero and died sealing away the Kyuubi that night? There were very few seals in the world powerful enough to hold a being of the Kyuubi's power, and most of them required the sealer to make their life forfeit. If Minato had just sacrificed himself for his beloved village, things would have been different.

He controlled himself as he went towards a seat. Although he had been prepared for such a scenario when he learned of the Yondaime's survival that night years ago, it didn't mean he liked it. He now couldn't obtain Uchiha Itachi for himself. The young man had no reason to come and join him. He was one of those very few Uchiha's not blighted by their own curse and always thought about others before himself. There was nothing he could offer him to come and join him.

'I'll need to find someone else to sync up with Gedou Mazo (Demonic Statue of the Outer Path) if Nagato decides to betray me.' Nagato or Pein or whatever he wanted to call himself thought he wouldn't notice his true feelings about him? He underestimated him. Well, that underestimation would come to bite him back in the future, but now he had more pressing things to worry about.

He had to find a replacement. There were very few Uchiha with powerful enough chakra that could sync up with the statue without immediately dying from the sheer energy required. Itachi had been his first choice, now that choice was scrapped. Shisui was a potential before Itachi came to prominence but he had quickly removed himself when he revealed his true self. He would have to go through the Uchiha clan once more to see if he could find someone powerful enough.

That brought onto another problem. It was becoming harder and harder to enter the village.

Which was supposed to be impossible. His Jikukan-Ido (Space-Time Migration) should have allowed him to enter the village free at will whilst travelling through time and space, negating all types of barriers set up to detect intruders. But every time he entered the village, his position would be off, and not long afterwards, a combat team of Anbu would soon appear.

It had to be Namikaze. It just had to be. There was no-one ingenious enough or skilled enough in barrier and sealing arts to try and create a complex seal that would try and negate or sense his teleportation jutsu, 'And the more I use it to enter the village, the more I'm helping him perfect it.' That was the only explanation he could think off as to why he would appear further and further away from his target location.

Kami, he was starting to hate that man with a passion.

"**Tobi.**"

Tobi turned around to face Zetsu as he appeared out of the ground, "Have you found him?" The plant-like man merely nodded his head, "Well?"

"**He's like Orochimaru alright."** Black Zetsu remarked as he spoke. His white half couldn't help but nod, forcing his black half to nod along with him, "He needs something to join us."

"What is it?"

"**A Sharingan."**

Yeah, definitely like Orochimaru.

Tobi just scoffed, "That's all? He would get his if he joins us." Not that it would matter when the true objective of Akatsuki was met anyway, "He has all the Sharingans he could choose from." What with the Uchiha clan being around for longer than he wanted now.

"**Yeah, but he doesn't want it now. He wants it in the future."** The black half spoke, his tone somewhat irritated, "Something about the time not being right." The white half finished off.

"Is he going to join us or not?" Tobi asked once more, his tone laced with irritation. He didn't need this right now. He was not having a good day...by his standards anyway.

Zetsu stiffened slightly at the tone, "He'll join us." The white half said, slight traces of fear in his voice. Man, this whole Uchiha thing must have annoyed Tobi greatly if he was trying to take this out on them, "**He got all excited at the mention of Orochimaru. Something about seeing an old friend and classmate. Don't have a clue what he meant."** Black Zetsu finished off, unlike his white half, completely fearless in the face of Tobi. It wasn't like Tobi would kill him. White Zetsu? Yeah, they were a dime a dozen. Himself? No, he was crucial to their plans.

Tobi just smirked behind his mask. He knew what he meant. He was saddened that he wouldn't be their in person to see the Snake Sannins' reaction when his old classmate and contemporary Hiruko introduced himself. Having perfected his own version of immortality whilst Orochimaru was still working on his. That would have just been amusing to see.

* * *

><p><span>Konoha Shinobi<span>

Hatake Kakashi

**Ninjutsu: 5**

**Taijutsu: 4**

**Genjutsu: 4**

**Intelligence: 4.5**

**Strength: 3.5**

**Speed: 4**

**Stamina: 3**

**Hand Seals: 5**

**Total: 33**

Ne

Fu

**Ninjutsu: 4**

**Taijutsu: 3.5**

**Genjutsu: 2.5**

**Intelligence: 3**

**Strength: 3**

**Speed: 3.5**

**Stamina: 3.5**

**Hand Seals: 4**

**Total: 27**

* * *

><p><strong>AN: For all you that have been waiting, guess what's the next chapter? That's right, timeskip motherfucker. I've handled everything I wanted that will impact the story-line later on. Some might think by keeping the Uchiha about alive and kicking is a bit cliche with Minato alive stories, but trust me, I have big, BIG, BBBIIIIGGGG plans for this clan in the future...but those plans won't turn up until the second part.<strong>

**...You angry? :D**

**Well, leave a review.**

**Raiden says see ya.**


	9. Hello World

**Review shutouts!**

**skg1991: Don't expect him to see everything coming though. Minato isn't some omnipresent God who knows everything that's going to come in advance. There will be moments were he can't control the outcome or that would outright surprise him. I just decided to change those three things because, honestly, I thought why not. Jokes aside, I need the Uchiha for a plot point I have in the future. **

**izzyrawr: Just because the stats are lower doesn't mean he's weaker. Well, most would assume Kakashi is weaker than Itachi, but let's not forget that Kakashi is seemingly a match for anyone who's ever fought him. He's badass in his own way, like how Itachi is badass in his own way.**

**Sandeep Nagraj: You my friend, shall be surprised in the future with the Uchiha.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. It sucks, but I don't. Kishi does. The bastard.**

* * *

><p><span><strong>Hello World<strong>

"Naruto." Minato called out as he entered his son's room, with said blonde currently covered by blankets, "Naruto, wake up." He instructed as he headed for the window.

Movement could be seen underneath the blanket, as shown when Naruto managed to move his pillow to cover his head, "Five more minutes dad." The blonde half yawned, half grumbled, "I went to bed late last night."

Minato reached the window and made for the curtains, "And whose fault is that?" He asked with a wry smirk on his lips, "It wasn't as if someone forced you to train for that long."

More grumbling could be heard from underneath the blankets, "You should have stopped me." The blonde argued back from his place on his bed, "That's what parents are for." He continued trying to make his case, "To stop their kids from doing stupid stuff." Like training themselves late into the early morning. Jeez, wasn't he making a racket with all the sounds of exertion he was making last night?

Minato chuckled to himself as he split the curtains wide, letting the morning sunlight enter the previously darkened room, "Don't you always say that you're a big boy? I'm sure big boys don't have their dad's looking over them 24/7." He turned around and leaned on the sill, his arms crossed over his chest, "Come on, wake up now. It's a beautiful and special day today."

"I couldn't tell," The younger blonde of the two began to say, still covered by his blanket and pillow, "Cause of the blankets and everything."

The oldest blonde merely shrug with a playful smile on his face, "Alright then, I guess you don't want to graduate this year then."

3…

2…

1…

Naruto immediately shot up from his bed, his pillow having been sent flying to the other side of his bed, "Oh yeah," He began excitedly, all traces of his previous sleepy attitude gone, "Today's the graduation exam!" He finished off as he threw aside his blanket and got up on his bed in his ramen pajamas and started jumping on it excitedly, "Alright, going to pass this stupid exam and then I'm on my way to becoming the baddest Hokage ever, dattebayo!"

Naruto was now 12 years old and stood at an average height for boys' his age. His hair had grown slightly longer and had two bangs that reached the middle of his ears framing his face that were starting to form.

Minato smiled lightly at himself, "Well someone's confident that they're going to pass today aren't they?"

Naruto stopped jumping on his bed and rolled his eyes, "Well duh." He said as if that was an obvious fact, "I'm the bomb. Just you wait, going to pass whatever test they throw at me. Cause I'm the bomb."

"Yes…" Minato slowly began as he made his way towards the door, "You have been telling me you're the bomb ever since you learned of the word." He left Naruto's room and stopped himself just outside of the door, "Well, if you don't hurry up and get ready, you won't be taking any exam today."

That seemed to get Naruto's head out of the clouds as he immediately stopped jumping on his bed, "Yeah, but I'm sure if I'm late you'd look out for me wouldn't you?" The blonde said with a grin on his face as he dropped down to the floor.

"Not really."

Naruto just gaped at his father with a look of disbelief, "Why? Why not? I'm your son!"

"Exactly." Minato said as he turned to face Naruto, "I can't show favouritism now can I? You get the same chances as everyone else."

"Aww, that's not fair." The younger blonde whined, "If it was the other way round, I'd definitely look out for you."

"Aww, that's so sweet." Minato said, small smile on his face, "Won't change my decision though. Anyway, I have to go. I've already made breakfast," Naruto face dropped at that and Minato just smirked. He had learned early on that his son had very unhealthy eating habits. If no-one told him so, the boy would eat nothing but ramen if he could help it, "Yep, no ramen for you. And I will know if you don't eat it."

"You take the fun out of everything."

Minato let out a small laugh, "Well, isn't that what parents do?" He waved at his son, "Bye now." And with that, he was gone in a flash.

Naruto grumbled as he made his way out of his room towards the bathroom. Damn him for having an attentive dad. How he managed to always have the time to make breakfast every morning was beyond him. He liked it better when his old man would leave in the early morning and he would be able to make his own breakfast...which was mostly ramen, since ramen was the best and no-one could really say otherwise.

The blonde made his way into the bathroom, started the shower and then made his way towards the sink to brush his teeth. He looked himself in the mirror, admiring himself as it slowly got covered in moisture from the hot water, "Hey fuzzball, how's it hanging in there?" He asked, seemingly no-one.

He had to wait for a while, before he got his reply, "**I will eat you one of these days."** A rather deep and dark voice emanated from the depths of his mind, "**And you know what? I'm going to enjoy it. Even more if that bastard father of yours is watching."**

Naruto stuck out his tongue, "Like dad would lose to you." He defended his father, "You lost to him once didn't you?"

"**I didn't lose."**

A toothy grin came across the 12 year old's lips, "Then what do you call being sealed?" Because as far as he was concerned, the giant fuzzball had his ass-kicked. Even if it was his mother who had delivered the final ass-kicking at the cost of her life.

"**Urgh, shut up. Talking to you gives me a migraine."**

Giving himself a victory pump at his victory against the fox, Naruto spit out the toothpaste from his mouth and rinsed it before stripping himself of his clothing and heading into the shower.

As Naruto washed himself, he couldn't help but think back to the day his dad, accompanied by his godfather and grandfather figure had delivered the bombshell news of what he was holding inside of him on his tenth birthday. The day had been going far too well now that he thought about it, he had received everything he wanted in terms of presents.

(Flashback)

"_So what did you want to talk to me about dad?" The recently turned 10 Naruto asked as he entered his father's study, his voice full of all kinds of happy feelings. His birthday had been awesome, "Are you going to teach me the Hiraishin? Please let it be the Hiraishin!" That jutsu seemed like the ultimate move to have. Just throwing a kunai and zap, appearing right in a mofo's face and plowing a Rasengan into that ugly mofo's face._

_Minato recoiled, why in all honesty would he teach Naruto that jutsu? It had been an utter pain to reverse engineer it from the little information he could get before he the Sandaime had given him access to the Forbidden Scrolls of Sealing where it was documented. Apart from that, he didn't know or want to find out if his son could survive the strain that the jutsu or space-time manipulation had on the body of one user of the jutsu, Uzumaki blood or not._

"_Eh no actually. Maybe when you're older." Minato began after getting himself together, "It's about something completely different."_

_Naruto closed his eyes and cocked his head to the side, "Something different?" He repeated, "What is it?"_

_Minato got up from his seat and made his way round his desk towards his son, "You'll find out soon enough." He placed a hand on his son's' shoulders, "But first, let's have a change of scenery shall we?"_

_Naruto's face dropped. He wasn't going to like this. Every time his dad said that, it meant they were going to travel a lot of distance in a short amount of time, which always made his head spin._

"_...Can't we just walk there?" He asked slowly, "Like normal people?"_

_Minato smirked down at his son, "Yes," He began slowly, his tone showing all kinds of amusement at his sons' question, "Because ninja are the definition of normal."_

_Naruto glared up at his father, "If I hurl, I'm going to make sure I am it at you."_

"_And I'll be sure to move out of the way." Said father quipped in reply, "Now hold onto your launch." He finished off as father and son vanished from the office._

_XxX_

_(Somewhere)_

"_Urgh…" Naruto groaned as he held his head, "...That wasn't so bad." He said after a while as he realised he didn't feel like puking out all of his lunch._

"_Well yeah, you tend to get used to it after several times."_

_Naruto blinked as he turned to face the voice that didn't belong to his father, "Ero-sennin!" He let out in surprise as he saw his godfather walking towards the father-son duo._

_Jiraiya face faulted before quickly picking himself up, "Oh not you too!" First it was Kushina, now it was her son? Was that blasted name going to follow him all his life? "What happened to Jiraiya-kyofu? You were so much more respectful two years ago!" He ranted amidst Minato's slight sniggering in the background._

_Naruto crossed his arms and squinted his eyes as he looked at his godfather, "Well, you're a pervert and also a sennin aren't you?" He innocently asked, "So it sort of fits." And it sounded much better than ero-kyofu. That didn't have the same ring to it as ero-sennin._

_Jiraiya glowered at Naruto, but the blonde stood his ground. His godfather wouldn't harm a hair on his head...unless they were training, then he would have free reign to do whatever he damn well wanted, "You got one thing wrong though brat."_

_Naruto raised an eyebrow, "What did I get wrong?" He asked as beside him, his father sighed as he realised what was going to come next._

"_I'm not a pervert…" Jiraiya began as he crossed his arms, before grinning widely, "I'm a super pervert!" He finished off, rather proud of that declaration._

_Naruto just sweatdropped, "Then there's nothing wrong with me calling you ero-sennin then!" The nickname fitted the man if he admitted himself a pervert like that._

"_That's not the point brat!" The legendary ninja snapped at Naruto, "How would you like it if people went and gave you a nickname like that?"_

_All the young boy did was look haughtily away, with a proud look on his face, "But people won't give me such a nickname. I'm not a pervert."_

_All Jiraiya could do was just stare at Naruto blankly, "Right~" He drawled out slowly, "You're not a pervert? Then what exactly did we do like a week ago?" He was rather certain that the activity they did during their bonding session, many would consider it rather perverted in nature._

_Naruto just froze and panic came onto his face as he looked between his father and Jiraiya. Minato had turned to look down at his son with an inscrutable look. Naruto angrily pointed at Jiraiya, "You liar, you said we'll keep that between us!"_

_Jiraiya just gave Naruto a smug grin, "But I didn't say anything."_

_That was beside the point. The way he said it, he was alluding to something. And his dad was more the perspective enough to pick up on it. The look he was receiving was more than enough of that._

_Minato just watched at his panicking and sweating son before shaking his head, he had seen this coming years ago. He doubted even if he had managed to keep Jiraiya out of Naruto's life, his son would have a slight trace of pervert in him, 'Something he definitely didn't pick up from me.' Minato wasn't a pervert, he was just a healthy young male who was a voracious reader of all sorts of books, smut included, "Well…" He began as he finally spoke, "I don't know whether I actually want to hear about the activities you guys do in your little 'bonding' sessions." He said as he turned to face Jiraiya and gave him a deadpan stare, "But I think it's best that I come along on these things in the future." Jiraiya clearly wouldn't try something with the father in toll would he?_

_Apparently, he was wrong as Jiraiya waved off the subtle warning, "Yeah, yeah, whatever." He crossed his arms as his expression got a little more serious, "Come on, let's tell the kid. We can have a talk about this later on."_

_Naruto blinked as he looked between the two males, "Talk about what?"_

_Minato took in a deep breath and sighed as he thought about how to best tell Naruto what he was about to tell him. It wasn't exactly an easy subject that he could just outright come and say._

_Eventually, he decided to start of with a little history lesson, "Naruto…" He began, causing the young blonde to snap his head in his father's direction, "On the day you were born, do you know what happened?"_

_Naruto nodded. It was basically common knowledge and he had a reminder of it everytime he had his birthday. He didn't know whether it was a good or bad thing that his day of birth coincided with the day that his village was attacked by a giant demon fox._

"_Yeah, the Kyuubi attack." He answered his father's question._

_Minato nodded, happy with that answer, "Do you know what happened to it?"_

_Naruto grinned widely, "Of course, you and kaa-chan kicked it's ass!" He might not have known his mother personally, but she must have been badass if she was able to help his old man kick the giant fuzzball's ass._

"_Ah well, I guess that's one way to say it." Minato mused with a slight smile. He then shook his head before going back onto the subject, "See Naruto, a being like the Kyuubi can't just be killed or destroyed."_

"_Huh?" Naruto let out, confusion plastered onto his face, "Why?"_

"_Because beings like the Kyuubi are living chakra." Jiraiya cut in, his tone and expression serious, "Energy can't be destroyed or created. Thus, even if you managed to 'destroy' the Kyuubi," As much of a feat of power and skill and all other kinds of probabilities like that would take, "It will just reform itself in a few years."_

"_...So it can't be killed?" Naruto said slowly after a while. Jiraiya and Minato nodded their heads and slowly, the news started to sink in before worry came to the blonde's face, "W-wait, if it can't be killed and you destroyed it, it's going to reform right?" How long ago was that? Jiraiya had said it would reform in a few years, how long does one take a few years? It had already been ten, for all he knew, it could already be reforming, "W-What are we going to do?" The location of the Kyuubi's destruction was like literally outside the village. If it reformed, the first thing it would see is the village and might come back to finish the job it started, "You can take it right?" The blonde asked fearfully as he looked up at his godfather and father._

_For Naruto, Jiraiya and Minato were the strongest as far as he was concerned. People always talked about how good they were, even his super-strong brother-like figure Kakashi would always say that he didn't stand much of a chance against either ninja, and that very few ninja in the world could also do the same._

_But the Kyuubi couldn't be killed, those two could. What if it got lucky and managed to get a lucky shot on either or both of them? For lack of a better term, his village would be screwed._

_Seeing the panic seeping quickly into Naruto's eyes, Minato placed a calming hand on his son's' head, "Calm down and stop panicking Naruto." He said in a soothing and calming tone, "The Kyuubi isn't coming back."_

_Naruto looked up into his father's bright blue eyes, "It's not?" He asked, fear and panic in his voice._

_Minato shook his head, "It's not coming back because the Kyuubi is safely sealed away. You do remember what I told you about sealing right?"_

_Naruto nodded his head. Minato and Jiraiya were Naruto's role models and he tried to model himself after them. All of them were very good in all the facets of the ninja arts. They were even considered masters in fuuinjutsu, the most obscure art out of them. _

_With this knowledge, he had demanded either one of them teach him in it. He hadn't had bothered. Minato had already planned on teaching him, later on in his life, but had planned too. Reason being that fuuinjutsu was in his blood, having a mother coming from a clan feared for their unrivalled mastery in the art._

"_Fuuinjutsu are types of jutsus that seal things into other things." He said in explanation._

_Minato nodded, "Good. With that knowledge, you can make an assumption about the Kyuubi that it's…?" He trailed off, wanting Naruto to finish of his sentence._

_Naruto looked at his father before scrunching up his face into thought. He only had to think for a few short moments before his eyes widened, "The Kyuubi is sealed into something?"_

"_Correct kid." Jiraiya answered, "But then there's a problem with that." _

_Naruto turned his head towards his godfather, "Problem?"_

_Jiraiya nodded, "The only thing that can hold a being of the Kyuubi's power is a human being. Non-living objects, even special ones can't pull that off."_

_Naruto's eyes widened, "So the Kyuubi is sealed into someone!?" Wow, what did that mean for that person? Having such a creature inside them? Could they still be considered human? Or were they something else?_

"_Pretty much."_

_Woah, woah, back up a second. Why were they telling him this? Shouldn't something like this be super secret or something? There was no need for them to be telling a ten year old kid about this. This was something only someone like his dad or Jiraiya should know about, probably Hiruzen too. _

_There was just no way he should know about this, there just wasn't any justifiable reason for him to be knowing this...unless…_

"_No." _

"_Well, would you look at that," Jiraiya began, amusement in his voice, small a dose as it was, "He's not as stupid as he looks if he managed to come to figure it out himself."_

_Oh why did he have to say that? That just made his train of though concrete, "It's sealed inside me!?" He let out in panic, eyes wide and pupils shrunk, tears slowly forming in the wells of his eyes "What does that mean? Does that mean I'm the Kyuubi? Am I even human? Or some kind of mon-." _

_Naruto didn't finish his sentence as his father immediately dropped down into a crouch to stare into his eyes, "Don't even finish that sentence." Naruto couldn't honestly believe this was his kind and rather easy-going father. He had never seen his eyes so stern or steeled before. Not even when he pulled of some of the most ridiculous of pranks in the village that caused widespread disturbances, "You're Namikaze Naruto. You're the son of Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina. _My _son. You're not the Kyuubi. And most of all, you're human. Don't ever think of yourself as a monster. The Naruto I know would never harbor such a thought."_

_Naruto looked at his father before slowly nodding and wiping the tears away with the sleeve of his shirt, "Okay…" He said lowly, his voice slightly broken as he was about to cry. Man, how stupid was he? What kind of demon or monster would cry after something like that?_

"_Listen to your dad brat." His godfather said as he walked towards Naruto, "You're not a monster or a demon or anything like that. Anyone with a bijuu inside them aren't monsters at all. They're human, as much as popular opinion colours them as monsters."_

_Bijuu? What where they? And there were more people like him with something like the Kyuubi sealed inside them? "There's more people like me?"_

_Jiraiya nodded tersely, "Yeah...the official term for people with bijuu sealed inside them is that they're called Jinchuuriki (Power of Human Sacrifice)."_

_Naruto scrunched up his face, "So I'm a ji-jinchuuriki?"_

"_Yeah," Minato answered his son, as his expression softened from its previous one, "You and your old man right here." He finished as he stood up and lifted up his trade-mark blue shirt, moulded chakra to show the spiral like seal around his navel._

_Naruto's eyes widened. He had always wondered what that thing around his navel was. It was a seal? And his dad had one too? "If I have the Kyuubi inside me, what do you have?"_

"_The Kyuubi."_

"_I don't understand." There was just _one _Kyuubi right? He didn't want to know what to do if there was two of them._

"_We both have the Kyuubi inside us." Minato clarified, "Your mother sealed the Yin half into me, and you have the Yang half. Sort of explains all that energy you have." He finished off with a chuckle._

"_I don't get it." Was that supposed to be some kind of joke or something?_

"_Kid," Jiraiya began, shaking his head slowly in amusement, "I don't know how one minute you can be sharp as a tick and the next about as sharp as the ring end of a kunai."_

_Naruto glared at his godfather, "Oh shut up ero-sennin." He then turned his head back to his father, "So why are you guys telling me about this now?" It couldn't have just been a spur of the moment. This whole thing seemed planned._

_Minato lowered down his shirt and placed his hands in his pockets, "Well, I thought it was about time that I started training you in how to utilise the Kyuubi's chakra. It can be a very handy thing to know how to use and control if the situation required it."_

"_And that is the reason why we're here." Jiraiya chimed in as he panned his arms wide in the room they were in._

_For the first time since he came here, Naruto took in his surroundings. It was a room. A very big room at that. It had grey, stone walls and seemingly carved into those walls were various designs and other stuff that he noticed were seals. It also looked rather worn. There were faded claw marks somewhere on each wall, decorating them._

"_What is this place?" Naruto asked as he took in his surroundings._

_Jiraiya smirked, "Oh this? I like to this of this place as a training ground for jinchuurikis." He patted Naruto on the head, "You're really lucky brat. If it wasn't for your dad, we wouldn't have a base idea of how to train you in controlling the Kyuubi's chakra."_

"_Don't forget that we have different halves of the Kyuubi's chakra sensei. So it might be different." Minato helpfully chimed in._

"_Oh yeah, there's that too." Jiraiya said with a wave of the hand, "But we'll get to it, when we get to it." He clapped his hands together, large, toothy grin on his face, "Right, so how about we start your training?"_

_Naruto looked at his godfather and took a slight step back, "I somehow get the feeling this is going to be painful for me…"_

"_All training is painful kid. If you aren't feeling the burn, you aren't training yourself properly!"_

_(_End of Flashback)

Naruto had been rather terrified and shocked to learn that he had to first make contact with the Kyuubi to begin his training. That took a while to do, as it involved a lot of meditating, something he did, but didn't particularly like. He just wasn't made for seating around for ages and doing nothing.

When he finally made contact, the Kyuubi made a game out of terrifying the hell out of him, before he slowly learnt that the demon fox couldn't really harm him or anything like that due to the technicalities of the seal that imprisoned it. After that, it was all just a matter of trying to coax it to give him its chakra.

Which it did...by giving him more than he could handle...thus making him go berserk.

Luckily, the training room that he went to train in, had enough seals in that place to suppress any sort of demonic chakra. Thus his rage fueled states would only last moments before he was returned to a normal, lucid state.

It took him a while, but slowly started to learn to be able to control and handle the chakra. He was nowhere near his dad, but in his own humble opinion, he was pretty decent.

His relationship with his half of the fox though was rather one-sided. The Kyuubi would mostly make snide remarks about the difference in skill and talent between him and his father, or just try and put him down in general. Unfortunately, the fox didn't get the memo that he was trying to put down Naruto, a hot-pot of all sorts of positive energy.

Eventually, Naruto stepped out of the shower and turned it off. He quickly dried himself before putting back on his clothes and heading straight for his room, 'You ready for today fuzzball?'

'**Why do you persist in talking to me? I don't want to talk to you.'**

Naruto rolled his eyes as he took off his pajamas and put on his normal work clothes, 'Well, we're stuck together, might as well get to know each other and all that other stuff.'

The blonde was dressed in a dark-blue short-sleeved shirt, orange, sleeveless hoodie, dark blue pants and blue sandals.

'**I rather not know you at all. I'd prefer it if you just kept your mouth shut and left me alone to my musings.'**

Naruto frowned slightly as he put on the last of his clothing, 'That's no fun. Don't you want to have someone to talk to at least?' He knew he would. Imprisoned inside someone and not having anybody to talk to, even if it was his jailor would have driven him mad.

'**Not really, no.'**

And with that, the Kyuubi cut off their communication. Naruto knew enough that there was no point in trying to re-open it so soon after it had been cut off. All it would have done would have made the Kyuubi even more testy than it usually was.

Noticing the time, Naruto immediately made way downstairs towards the kitchen and noticed that his breakfast had a note beside it;

_Naruto,_

_I figured you'd be running late. You really need to stop picking up on some people's bad habits (Kakashi). Here's some easy breakfast that you can eat on the go._

_P.S. Remember to lock the door._

_Dad_

Naruto scrunched up the note with a roll of the eyes, 'I don't pick up on other people's bad habits.' He thought as he grabbed the slices of toast and made for the exit, 'And lock the door? That only happened a couple of...times.' But it didn't matter anyway. There was security seals and all that other kind of stuff.

With that thought, the blonde exited his home, he had to skid to a halt before turning back to lock the door and then shot off once again in the direction of the academy, 'Alright Naruto, let's pass this stupid exam. We've got this in the bag!'

XxX

(Ninja Academy)

Naruto had managed to make good time to make his way towards the academy and had managed to arrive to his class several minutes before it started. He was rather surprised by the sheer number of students in the class, all of them absolutely buzzing with excitement at the prospect of finally graduating.

He couldn't exactly blame them, he was rather excited too. He could almost feel himself carrying that headband in his hands, and slowly tying it around his forehead, signifying that he was finally a ninja and could now be considered an adult in the eyes of the village and elsewhere.

"Oi Naruto!"

Naruto turned his attention to the back of the class to see Kiba waving his hand at him, beckoning him over. The blonde grinned as he made his way up the steps, "Kiba!"

The Inuzuka student slid over the aisle to make room for his blonde haired friend, "For a second there, I thought you were going to be late." Akamaru popped his head from inside Kiba's jacket to let out a bark of greeting...or a bark of agreeing with his master.

Naruto grumbled as he took a seat, "Why do people say that? I'm never late." He defended himself. So what if he arrived for things a couple of minutes or so after a specified time? That wasn't being late. Arriving several hours later was being late.

As far as he was concerned, punctuality was the thief of time. Great, now he was quoting long-dead writers.

"Uhuh," Kiba let out disbelievingly, "Yeah, sure whatever you say."

Naruto ignored the tone he was receiving and looked around, "Where's Shika and Chouji?" There was no way Shikamaru's mom would have made him miss an important day like today. She would have made sure of it.

"You're not very observant are you?" A familiar voice drawled out, "We're right behind you idiot."

Naruto turned around to see the two said people seating in the role behind him. Shikamaru was slumped over the desk of the table, resting his head on his arms with a look on his face that said he didn't even want to be there at this moment in time, 'Expected.' And beside him was Chouji, happily eating away at a bag of chips, 'And again, expected.'

"Why are you guys seating back there anyway?" He looked around on the row that he was seating, there was loads of free seats either side of him or Kiba, "There's space here."

Shikamaru snorted as he moved his head to face down into his desk, "And seat near you troublesome guys? Why would I honestly want to do that?" Ah, typical Shikamaru. Answer a question with another question. If he wasn't a very good friend, he would have beaten him into the ground right about now about that little habit of his.

Naruto squinted his eyes shut, "You're like seating a row behind us," He pointed out, "How is this no different than sitting beside us?"

"Because when the exams start, I'll have a clear view on your exam paper."

Naruto just gave Shikamaru a dry look. Was he honestly saying he would copy his answers? Why would he do that? Shikamaru was way smarter than Naruto. By like an untold amount of leagues. Naruto knew that, hell, everyone in their little group of friends knew that Shikamaru was the smartest person in the class, even more than the walking textbook that was Sakura.

"Don't joke about that Shika," Kiba said from his place beside Naruto, "Do you want to fail that badly? I don't think your mom would approve."

"Yeah Shika, don't copy me. Seriously don't." Naruto reiterated. Writing exams were never his thing. He didn't like them, they didn't like him. It was as simple as that. Hey wait a second, "One of these day's Kiba!" Naruto growled as he snapped his attention towards his feral friend. Really, what was with the snide remarks about his intelligence, "Like you can talk! Where are you again in the rankings?"

Kiba had a bit of a flustered expression as he looked away, "That doesn't matter. Those things don't mean anything when it comes to the real thing."

Before Naruto could retort or make some comment on that, the door to the classroom slid open and in stepped two of Naruto's teachers, Iruka and his assistant teacher, Mizuki, both of them were carrying a stack of papers. Iruka placed the papers on the desk, so did Mizuki with Iruka turning to face the classroom, "Alright class, settle down." He ordered the class to get some order in the room, "I know you're all excited or probably nervous, but all I can say now is that I know all of you studied and trained hard for today."

Iruka then tapped one of the stack of papers behind him, "Your graduation exam is going to be split into four parts, I'm sure most of you have already guessed the first part." He said with an amused look on his face as a groan went throughout the class, "That's right, a written portion, then followed by taijutsu exam against me or Mizuki, weapons proficiency and finally ninjutsu." He cast a look over his classroom, taking in each and every single face, "No matter what happens, I want to let you all know that I'm proud to have had you as your teacher for the past four years and I'm sure many of you will go on to be excellent ninja." Various smiles and grins came across the classroom of students, even the usually aloof and indifferent Sasuke had a twitch of a smile on his lips before it quickly disappeared, "Well then, let's get this over with shall we?"

XxX

(Hokage's Office)

"Hokage-sama."

Minato looked up from his work to look at the door to see his secretary peeking through the door, "Yes?"

"Fugaku-sama has come to visit you."

Minato raised his eyebrow just a bit before motioning his secretary to allow him in, "Sure, let him in." It's not like he had a choice in the matter. Fugaku was rather prideful, if he had turned the man away, he would have paid for it in someway sooner or later.

Not long afterwards, Fugaku entered his office, dressed in the usual black of the Uchiha Police Force, "Fugaku," Minato greeted with a smile on his face, "It's been a while. How have you been?" He asked as he motioned for him to take a seat.

"I've been fine Hokage-sama." Fugaku stated in a neutral tone as he made his way towards the seat, "I just came here to talk about a small subject that is all." He finished of in a business-like tone as he took the seat.

Minato noted the tone and really couldn't be surprised. Whatever familiarities the two had between them since their academy days had long since gone. When it came between them now, Fugaku always addressed him in either neutrality or business like tones.

'Well, at least he's been good for the past four years.' As good as he could be of course. He made some waves here and there, but not so much that it garnered the negative attention of the village like he had been doing years before Shisui 'adjusted' him, "What did you come to talk about?"

"Sasuke."

Minato raised a curious eyebrow, "What about him?"

"I came here to request that he be placed under a jounin-sensei of my choosing." In other words, a jounin from the Uchiha clan.

"Like who exactly?" Minato asked, having a feeling that the jounin that Fugaku would entrust his second son to would come from his own clan and someone that Fugaku had a lot of faith in.

"Uchiha Inabi." Fugaku stated, his arms crossed over his chest, face neutral as he stared directly into the eyes of Minato in front of him.

Minato shook his head in the negative, "You know I can't do that. You know there's laws against that." In the spirit of fairness, genin coming from clans couldn't be put under a jounin sensei of the same clan, in case that jounin showed favoritism to their family member and ignored the others.

"I was hoping you could make a special case just this once." Fugaku said, trying to get Minato to allow him this favour.

"I can't, you know that." Minato repeated once more. He eyed the Uchiha patriarch, "Why the interest anyway? You didn't come to me about this for Itachi."

The Uchiha patriarch merely rolled his eyes, "You and I both know that Itachi was special. He would have needed little to no help at all with his training and he would have still grown into the shinobi he is today."

There was something about the way he said Itachi's name that didn't suit well with Minato. It was like as if he didn't view Itachi as his son anymore. Which was just absurd, Itachi was seen by many as the pride of the clan along with Shisui. For someone like Fugaku, discarding him would have been just strange considering his need to show that the Uchiha were better than others.

"Much like you I suppose." Fugaku finished off as an afterthought, his tone holding small amounts of spite.

Minato ignored the feelings in his tone, he had come to terms with this long ago. If Fugaku didn't like him, he wasn't going to bend himself backwards to make him like him. And anyway, he had been prepared to lose friends the moment he took on the role of Hokage, friends came and went with the decisions one made, "I guess," He admitted lowly, "But you don't have to worry about Sasuke's growth. I'm sure if-

"-_When_-" Fugaku cut in, correcting Minato on his use of the conditional. His son would pass, he knew that, there was no 'if' with Sasuke. The boy would pass.

"_When_," The blonde haired Hokage corrected himself at the prompting of Fugaku, there was no further need to aggravate the man anymore other than his presence already did, "He passes, just like all the other genin squads, he will be given a capable jounin sensei. Trust me on this."

The two man seemingly entered a staring contest of sorts, neither willing to look away from each other's eyes. Finally, Fugaku broke the contest off as he stood up from his seat, "Very well Hokage-sama. I trust in your decision." He said as he turned and made his way towards the door, "Goodbye Hokage-sama."

Minato watched Fugaku reached the door and open it, "Goodbye Fugaku." He said in parting as the door closed shut behind the dark-haired Uchiha. Minato relaxed in his seat and looked to the ceiling and let out a sigh, he now had to make sure that whoever was Sasuke's sensei if the boy passed, was up to whatever Fugaku's standards were.

But who could it be? It clearly had to be someone rather extraordinary themselves. He had a long list of such ninja that could come underneath that blanket. As he thought about it, a smile, a smile that seemed to look completely and utterly foreign on Minato's face, came to his face as a single name came to the forefront of his mind.

The name belonged to a rather renowned ninja, of exceptional skill, someone Fugaku would have little complaint with, except for the single fact that it would vex the Uchiha patriarch to no end simply because of who he was.

Yeah, that seemed like a good person to have on the job.

One might not take it upon meeting the Yondaime Hokage for the first time and holding conversation with him, but if one knew him well enough, they would know that the Yondaime Hokage could be rather petty when given sufficient reason.

XxX

(Ninja Academy)

It was nearing the end of the standard academy day and which also meant that it was finally the last part of the graduation exam. Naruto might as well have strolled into the examination room for his ninjutsu test knowing that he had all but passed.

Could he be considered cocky because of this? Not really. Sure, others would think this was a somewhat cocky and arrogant attitude to have, but Naruto would have just preferred to think that he was self-confident in his abilities.

The written portion of the exam had gone the way he thought it would. He had done enough to pass with some extra marks for his cause. He wouldn't say he was book smart, but he knew his knowledge if it was required.

The taijutsu portion also was the same as the written portion, he had handled himself well enough. He was one of the top taijutsu fighters in his class after all, so he was sure he had passed that part of the exam.

And then the weapon proficiency exam might as well have been a walk in the park for him...even if Sasuke managed to get a higher total than him in that area. But that was just simply because throwing stuff wasn't his thing and he didn't spent more than enough time needed in that area. He preferred ninjutsu or just getting in close and pummelling someone or something with his fists.

"Well," Iruka began as he noted Naruto standing in front of him with a stupid grin on his face, "Someone looks confident in himself." He finished off with a gentle smile towards his blonde haired student.

Naruto rolled his body, getting out all the knots and kinks he was feeling, "Oh yeah. I'm going to ace this part. I just know it." His dad had always said it was more than likely that he would become a ninjutsu expert, what with all the chakra he had and everything.

Iruka just let a small laugh escaped his lips, "Alright, me and Mizuki would be the judge of that." He pulled out a sheet of paper from another stack of paper and picked up a pencil, "Alright then, all you have to do for this portion of the exam is perform the Kawarimi (Substitution), Henge (Transform) and the Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Jutsu)."

Mizuki who had been looking at Naruto raised an eyebrow when he noticed Naruto's expression when he saw the blonde pale somewhat at the last mention, "What is it Naruto?"

Said blonde laughed sheepishly, "Eh, the bunshin isn't exactly my thing."

"We know." Both Mizuki and Iruka deadpanned in unison. That had been the one thing apart from his lack of ability in genjutsu that had confused both chunins. Everything else, Naruto was good or decent in, even with the other two jutsus, but the Bunshin? He couldn't perform that basic of basics to save his life, "All we can ask is that you try." Iruka said with a smile on his face.

"Or," Naruto began, "I can do one better."

Iruka raised an eyebrow, "One better?"

Naruto nodded his head, "Yeah, my dad taught me another clone jutsu since he said that it was next to impossible for me to do the Bunshin when I went to him for help with it."

Mizuki was interested, "Alright, what jutsu is that?"

Naruto grinned as he brought his hands together in a 't' formation that the two chunins immediately recognised as the hand sign for a special forbidden jutsu that jounins use. There was no way that the Yondaime could have been irresponsible enough to teach his son that Kinjutsu (Forbidden) jutsu was he?

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)!"

Apparently he was.

Mizuki and Iruka were prepared to rush towards Naruto to make sure he was alright, but instead were surprised to see Naruto, along with two copies of himself, standing beside him, grinning and waving at them nonchalantly, "Does this count for the Bunshin thing?" They all said in unison.

Iruka let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, "Eh yes, I guess we can count it for the Bunshin then." He said as he marked off that portion of the exam as done, adding extra marks for sheer surprise factor, 'How much chakra does he have? He created two and he doesn't at all seem winded at all.' He had been told about the chakra draining cost of that particular ninjutsu and how most who barely had enough chakra would find themselves exhausted at just making one. But here Naruto was standing, with two clones, grinning and waving.

If he had enough chakra to do that, no wonder he couldn't be able to do the Bunshin. To mould the chakra for that jutsu for the boy must have been something like trying to extra a teardrop of water from a lake of water. Just downright impossible.

"Alright Naruto, continue with the other ones." Iruka prompted as he pointed to a seat at the back of the class, "Kawarimi with that seat and then Henge into a person of your choosing."

Naruto nodded, dispelled his clones and then proceeded to do as he was instructed and used the Kawarimi with the seat before quickly and promptly using the Henge to transform into a copy of his father.

Iruka smiled at his student, "Congratulations Naruto, you've passed." He announced as he passed over a headband that had blue cloth and a metal plate with the leaf symbol of Konoha engraved on it.

Naruto looked at the plate, ran a hand over the leaf engraving before a wide smile came across his face, "Yatta!" He jumped in excitement, "Thanks Iruka-sensei!" The blonde said as he quickly made his way for the exit.

"Hey Naruto!" Iruka called after the blonde, causing him to come to a halt to turn and face his academy sensei, midway through tying the headband across his forehead "Orientation is a week from now. Be there for your team assignments!"

Naruto gave the man a thumbs up and grinned, "Got it Iruka-sensei!" Man, that would have been embarrassing. He couldn't really count on his dad if he didn't learn of that. He would have probably said something like that it was a lesson of some kind, teaching him about not rushing off to do something without getting the full information, 'Dad does love his explanations.'

XxX

Apparently, everyone had passed their academy exam. Naruto had come to this simple conclusion simply because as he stepped out into the front yard of the academy, there were parents and guardians all congratulating their children on passing the exam, not once did he see a parent consoling any of his classmates or other people in his year.

Well, whatever, it didn't matter to him anyway, he had passed and that was all that mattered. He honestly didn't know what he was going to do for a week until orientation. He guessed he could train for the week and then hang around with the guys.

"Naruto!"

The young blonde was taken out of his musings by someone calling out to him. He turned his head and smiled before making his way over, waving and grinning at the same time, "Hana, Tsume-obasan!"

Hana glowered down at Naruto with her hands on her hips, "What? How come mom gets a suffix and I don't? I thought me and you were close Naruto." The look on her face told him that any other answer other than the right one would come back to bite him in some form or way. Like literally, her three ninken were already eyeing him.

Hana had long brown hair tied into a high ponytail with loose single bangs framing her face, facial marks of her clan plastered onto her cheeks and wore a beige medic uniform.

Naruto laughed sheepishly, "I'm sorry Hana-chan," He began as he thumbed towards Kiba who was currently standing next to him, "It's just he gets on my case every single time I refer to you with a suffix. Something about getting too close to his sister." Who knew Kiba had a sister complex? He definitely didn't look like the sort of guy.

"Yeah, whatever," Kiba cut in gruffly, "Now stop ogling Hana or I'll kick your ass."

Naruto just gave Kiba a look, "I'm not ogling. I'm looking at her because I'm talking to her." Hell, he couldn't even ogle because that medic-nin uniform wasn't flattering at all. Now her combat uniform, he could ogle that all day.

"I don't care, don't make me hit you, you bastard!"

"I'm not a bastard! I know who my parents are, you bastard!"

"I know who mine are too, you bastard!"

Hana and Tsume just watched with amusement as the two boys started glaring at each other, seemingly readying themselves for a fight. Deciding to stop this before they actually fight and ruin the rather buoyant mood that was going throughout the area, Tsume parted both boys, "Alright, as amusing as it would be to see you two guys scrap it out, this isn't the time or place."

The boys separated from each other, but couldn't help but cast a glare every now and then in each others direction.

"That's better." Tsume remarked with a grin that showed her extended canines, "So where's your old man Naruto? I don't see him around."

Naruto shrugged, "He's probably at the office. Hokage stuff and all that other stuff." It didn't really bother him that his dad couldn't be here at this moment in time. He knew that as village leader, his dad was extremely busy and sometimes would not be able to make it to some functions important to Naruto, but he didn't care. His dad always pulled through in some form or way, and other times, Jiraiya, Kakashi and some other people he considered important would come and replace his dad.

"I still don't see what he saw in becoming Hokage." She was clan head and that was more work than she ever wanted in her life. She grinned down at Naruto, "So Naruto," She began, something about her tone didn't suit the young blonde at all, "Is your dad seeing someone?"

Hana palmed her face at her mother's rather brazen question, "Come on mom, at least be subtle about it."

Naruto just looked at her uncomfortably, his father's love life was something that he never talked about. Ever, "Eh, no I don't think so."

"Really now?" The Inuzuka matriarch practically purred, somewhat unfitting due to the fact purring was associated with cats and with the Inuzuka clan being associated with dogs and those two creatures of nature not exactly fond of each, "Why don't you put in a good word for me?"

Naruto went to open his mouth but found himself being dragged away by Kiba, "Naruto, be quiet. It's not worth it. We might get on each other's cases, but I like you and trust me, your dad and my mom? No, bad idea. Just run. Run whilst you still can." The young Inuzuka warned his long-time friend.

Naruto just nodded and simply walked away from the Inuzuka clan members. He somewhat felt sorry for Kiba, he got the feeling his friend was going to suffer for the stunt he just pulled.

What a good friend.

Deciding to just head home, Naruto began to make his way through the crowds of people, waving and greeting some classmates and their parents who initiated the activity. As he neared the academy gates, he managed to find himself bumping into someone who had his back to him.

Naruto rubbed his head as he looked up, "Uh sorry about that." He apologised, "I wasn't looking in the direction I was heading." He was, but sooner or later he was going to bump into someone with how packed the area was. It was just taking a hustle to even make the minute or so walk to the gates.

"No," Wait a minute, he knew that voice. There was only one person he knew of that spoke in such a...dead manner, "You have nothing to be sorry about." As Naruto saw the face of the person, he knew he definitely knew the person that was talking.

"Uh, Itachi-san!" The blonde greeted as he looked up at his unadmitted rivals' older brother.

"Naruto-kun." Itachi greeted with a curt nod, "You passed I see. I expected as much."

Naruto grinned as he laced his hands behind his back, "Yeah. No way some dumb tests are going to stop me from becoming Hokage."

A small smile came across Itachi's lips, "Self-confident as always. Where does that belief come from I wonder?"

The young blonde merely shrugged his shoulders, "Hey, if I don't believe in myself, who will?" A lot of people actually, but that was beside the point. He was trying to prove a point.

"Hm, I guess that's a reason." Itachi said, "Just be sure that self-confidence doesn't make you arrogant. Arrogance in our line of work mostly assures death."

And with that, Naruto's mood just dropped, "Eh, has anyone ever told you, that you're rather depressing Itachi-san?"

Itachi looked down at Naruto with a blank expression, as Shisui's image appeared in his mind, "No, not really."

"Itachi-niisan!" Said teenage boy turned his attention to the person who had called out to him, "Don't just walk off like that!" Sasuke said as he came to a halt beside his brother. He then noticed who Itachi was talking to, "Dobe."

"Teme." Naruto greeted in return as the two boys eyed each other.

Itachi just raised an eyebrow at the interaction between the two. If he wasn't wrong, which he rarely ever was, these two boys considered each others rivals. A rivalry was a good thing to have, as long as it didn't spiral out of control and make it difficult for them to work with each other. But both seemed to be mature enough to handle it.

"I see you passed." Sasuke said after a while, noting the headband, tied around his forehead.

"Yep," Naruto easily replied, "Same could be said about you I guess." He replied in kind, nodding down to the headband in Sasuke's hands.

Sasuke smirked, "Yeah...Rookie of the Year too, didn't you know?"

Naruto's eyebrow twitched, "Only because I suck at genjutsu."

"And the Bunshin too." The younger of the two Uchiha present helpfully added. He then blinked as he remembered the final portion of the graduation exam, "How did you pass the ninjutsu part?" He doubted they would just let him graduate with only two of the three academy jutsu down, son of the Hokage or not. Those basics saved lives.

Naruto let a wide, toothy grin come across his face, "I'm awesome. How many times have I told you this?"

Sasuke just looked at Naruto before shaking his head and looked back up at Itachi who had stayed silent during the entire confrontation between the two youngsters, "Come on Itachi-niisan, mom and dad are calling for us."

Itachi nodded, "It's been a pleasure Naruto-kun. It would be interesting to see your growth in the future." He said in parting as he walked away with Sasuke in toll.

"I'm sure you'll be surprised!" Naruto called out after them as he waved goodbye, "See ya!"

"Well, you do have a knack for surprising people, so I'm sure he will be."

Naruto's eyes widened as he quickly turned around and looked up at the source of the voice, "Dad!"

Minato smiled down at his son with what seemed like a double-eye smile, "Yo Naruto, how is hanging?"

"What are you doing here?"

Minato put a hand on his hip, "What? I can't come see my son on his graduation? Wouldn't miss this for the world."

Naruto smiled up at his father before quickly engulfing him a hug. Minato returned the gesture himself and patted him on the back.

"Dad…"

"Yeah?"

"You can let go now. You're sort of ruining my rep."

"You're the one hugging me remember?"

Naruto removed himself from the hug with a roll of the eyes, "No-one likes a smart-ass dad."

"Hm, tell that to Shikaku." Minato nodded with his head, "Come on, let's go get something to eat. My treat."

Naruto grinned as he walked alongside his dad, "It's always your treat old man."

"...I'm not that old…" He was still in his thirties dammit, albeit late thirties, but still thirties nonetheless, "Now Hiruzen-san is old."

"Ohh, I'm going to tell him you said that."

"I don't think he would care."

"Still going to tell him."

XxX

(Later - Hokage Residence)

It was sort of weird. For the majority of his entire life, Naruto had lived in one house, the house he lived with his dad located in what some would call the suburbs of the village. It had surprised him really when he learned that if his dad had so wished, they could have been living right in the center of the village in the big-ass building that sat next to the academy.

He was somewhat peeved they didn't actually. It would have saved him a lot of time heading towards the academy since it would literally right next door to where he lived.

"Why did we never live here again?" Naruto asked as he walked through the hallway of the building, his father in toll.

"Cos I like the suburbs?" Minato offered as an explanation.

"That's such a lame excuse dad."

Minato laughed as he nodded his head, "I guess it is." He hummed in thought before giving a reason, "Well, because the house we lived in, it was bought by me and your mom." He chuckled to himself slightly, "Kushina didn't want to raise a family in this building since it also sort of counted as an office building."

Naruto nodded before a stray thought hit him, "Oh yeah, Tsume-obasan asked me to put in a good word for you."

"Oh yeah, I heard that."

Naruto looked up at his father, "...You heard?"

The Yondaime nodded his head in confirmation, "Oh yeah, I heard alright."

The younger of the two blondes looked at his father with squinted eyes, "Wait, how long where you at the academy?"

"Since the moment you stepped out of it." Minato looked down at his son with a smile, "Talk about timing right?"

"Urgh," Naruto let out with a shake of the head, "Well whatever. She wanted me to put in a good word for her just in case you decide to throw yourself back into the dating pool. And I've done it, so my conscious can rest easy." He hadn't thrown in a good word, he had just informed his father...who already knew. So it sort of didn't count, but it didn't really matter.

"Thanks." Minato replied with a nod of the head. He was rather sure that Tsume had just been playing with Naruto, but even if she wasn't, he didn't feel like dating. If anyone asked, he would state he was too old for that young man's game rather than give the real reason that to this day, he was still mourning his wife in silence.

Naruto needed his father to always be that strong person who didn't show any signs of weakness, and that's what he was going to get. He might have been observant to pick up on certain subtle shifts in emotions from time to time, but from a master like him, it was still a little out of his league.

At that time both father and son came to a halt after they heard a sound coming from a room they had just passed. Naruto and Minato looked at each other, they were supposed to be the only ones in the Hokage Residence, no-one else was supposed to be here...except for the Anbu guards guarding the building of course.

But they were located outside, not inside.

Minato gave his son a look that conveyed to the younger blonde, 'Stay close to me.' Naruto nodded as he followed his father as he turned back towards the room he the noise had come from. Whoever it was had managed to bypass security and thus just wasn't any sort of anybody, but probably someone of incredible skill.

'Well, at least I'll be able to learn a new security gap and cover it up.' Minato thought as he came to a room that caused him immediately go on alert, 'The Archives...' He thought as he gripped the door handle and pushed it open.

He blinked in surprise at who he saw inside the room, the person seemingly marvelling over a single scroll with others tattered all over the place. His look of surprise was also shared by his son who announced their presence at recognising the person, "Mizuki-sensei?" Naruto called out, causing Mizuki to stiffen as he turned to face Naruto, with his eyes widening at who he was with, "What are you doing?" He asked, although it was rather obvious to what he was doing.

Mizuki immediately got to his feet, dropping the scroll he had been holding to the ground "H-Hokage-sama!" He stammered, "Thank goodness you're here! I have something of importance to report."

Deciding to play along with the man, Minato just nodded his head, "Go on…"

"Just now, I saw a disturbance coming from this room when I was across at the Administration Building and decided to come and investigate." Mizuki quickly said as he beads of sweat rolled down his face, "What I found was an unknown enemy agent going through all these valuable scrolls."

Naruto cocked his head to the side, "A thief? Why not just inform the Anbu?" This place had Anbu on it didn't they? Something about this didn't fit.

Minato nodded his head, "Yes, exactly what Naruto said, why not just inform my Anbu agents about this thief?"

"Uh," Mizuki let out as one could proverbially see the smoke come out of his ears as he thought of something to say, "I-I didn't wish to give the agent a chance to escape, so I acted on my own without alerting anybody or following protocol!" He bowed at the hip, "Due to this, the thief managed to escape after a struggle! Please forgive me!"

Minato just looked at the blue-haired chunin with a dry look on his face, "Alright Mizuki, you can stop. You won't be able to talk your way out of this one. Do you honestly think that flimsy story you told me was actually going to work?"

Mizuki straightened himself slowly, "W-What do you mean Hokage-sama?"

Minato rolled his eyes, "Going to play dumb are we? Suit yourself. Just come in quietly and don't make a scene."

Mizuki looked at the Hokage with panicked eyes. Naruto just blinked, "So he's the thief? I knew something about this didn't feel right."

Minato sighed as he palmed his face, "Naruto, you have to be more observant…"

Seeing the Hokage's attention away from himself. Mizuki saw a chance as his eyes drifted towards Naruto. He could probably make an escape if he took the blonde boy hostage. The Hokage wouldn't dare risk the safety of his son.

Mizuki lunged at Naruto, "Come here you little demon!" He snarled out as he made to grab Naruto.

Just because his hand was covering his face, it didn't mean that Minato didn't know what was happening around him. He had seen Mizuki's eyes make their way towards Naruto's form and could easily guess what the chunin wanted to do, what he didn't expect was for Mizuki to refer to Naruto as 'demon' where did that come from? He couldn't have been referring to what he held inside him could he?

That was impossible. Mizuki didn't know of a single thing about the Kyuubi being held inside Naruto.

'Think about that later.' Minato chastised himself, 'Right now, put him down.' As far as Minato was concerned, Mizuki could have been moving in slow motion at the speed he was travelling. That's why he delayed acting, and because of that, he was rather surprised when he saw a blue and orange clad form rush towards Mizuki to meet him, "N-Naruto!?"

Said blonde heard his father call out to him, but he didn't care. He was currently concentrated on the form in front of him that had made a go for him and he wanted to take him down. In hindsight, he wondered why he had made a go to attack a chunin, his academy teacher out of all people.

"Ha, you think you'll beat me?" Mizuki arrogantly yelled out, "A chunin with more experience and skill than you?" He finished off as he threw a hand to grab Naruto. This was easier than he had thought it was going to be. For the fastest man alive, he sure didn't react quickly enough to save his son. What he didn't expect was for Naruto slip past his arm with a turn and deposit his elbow into his chest, "Guh!"

Mizuki spit out spittle from his mouth as he stumbled backwards. Naruto didn't let out as he went for him once more, "Compared to all of the people that have been kicking my butt since I was five years old, you suck!" The blonde proclaimed as he jumped in the direction of Mizuki to deliver a powerful spinning kick to the temple of the head that caught the chunin cleanly.

Minato watched with a rather surprised expression on his face as Mizuki dropped to the ground unmoving, with Naruto's foot on his back, standing over him and the blonde grinning and casting him the 'v' sign.

"Man, I'm awesome." Naruto began as he continued grinning at his dad, "Not even a ninja for a day yet, and I'm kicking some rogue ninja ass. Do I get paid for this? Cause I would really love it if I got paid for this."

Minato walked towards his son, "Yeah…" He then looked towards his son with a stern look, "But don't ever do that again, I had that under control." He began as he chastised his son, who withered underneath the tone and look, "What if Mizuki hadn't underestimated you? This whole situation would have been more difficult that it should have been."

Naruto couldn't bring himself to look at his father's face and looked away, "Sorry dad." He mumbled underneath his breath.

"What was that?"

"I said I'm sorry dad." Naruto repeated, loudly this time.

"Good," Minato said, softening his look, "But other than that. I want to say you surprised me, you took him on quite well. Even if he was underestimating you, you did brilliantly."

Naruto beamed at the praise as he rubbed the back of his head, "Hehehe, well, it's only because you, ero-sennin and Kakashi-nii trained me!"

"Well there's that too," Minato admitted with a nod of the head, "But don't forget that you also trained yourself into a stupor. Now why don't we go back home and I can properly tell you off for doing stupid things?"

Naruto's smile dropped, "I thought you just did that!"

The blonde Hokage had a wry grin as he shook his head, "That was just the light version. The real one comes at home."

"Urgh." Naruto then pointed downwards towards Mizuki, "Then what about this guy?"

Minato had already turned his back and was walking towards the door, "What guy?"

Naruto gave his father's back a quizzical look and pointed down repeatedly, "This guy! I'm talking about Mizuki, the guy I just beat up!" He finished off as he looked down only to see that he was standing on a scroll, "Wait what?" He looked up at his father who was waiting for him in the corridor, "How did you do that?" He asked with narrowed eyes.

"Do what?" Minato asked with a raised eyebrow of amusement, trying to feign ignorance.

Naruto groaned as he stomped in his father's direction, "Aw you suck dad."

"So you tell me so many times."

* * *

><p><span>Konoha Shinobi<span>

Genin

Namikaze Naruto

**Ninjutsu: 3**

**Taijutsu: 2.5**

**Genjutsu: 1**

**Intelligence: 2**

**Strength: 2**

**Speed: 2.5**

**Stamina: 4**

**Hand Seals: 2**

**Total: 19**

Uchiha Sasuke

**Ninjutsu: 2.5**

**Taijutsu: 2.5**

**Genjutsu: 2**

**Intelligence: 2**

**Strength: 2**

**Speed: 3**

**Stamina: 2**

**Hand Seals: 3**

**Total: 19**

Inuzuka Kiba

**Ninjutsu: 1.5**

**Taijutsu: 2.5**

**Genjutsu: 0.5**

**Intelligence: 1**

**Strength: 2.5**

**Speed: 3.5**

**Stamina: 1.5**

**Hand Seals: 1.5**

**Total: 14.5**

Inuzuka Hana

**Ninjutsu: 2.5**  
><span>

**Taijutsu: 3.5**

**Genjutsu: 3**

**Intelligence: 3**

**Strength: 2**

**Speed: 3.5**

**Stamina: 3**

**Hand Seals: 3**

**Total: 23.5**

Inuzuka Tsume

**Ninjutsu: 3.5**

**Taijutsu: 4**

**Genjutsu: 2.5**

**Intelligence: 3.5**

**Strength: 2.5**

**Speed: 4**

**Stamina: 3.5**

**Hand Seals: 3.5**

**Total: 27**

Umino Iruka

**Ninjutsu: 3**

**Taijutsu: 3**

**Genjutsu: 2.5**

**Intelligence: 4**

**Strength: 2.5**

**Speed: 2.5**

**Stamina: 3**

**Hand Seals: 3.5**

**Total: 24**

Nuke-nin

Mizuki

**Ninjutsu: 4**

**Taijutsu: 3.5**

**Genjutsu: 2**

**Intelligence: 3**

**Strength: 3**

**Speed: 3**

**Stamina: 3**

**Hand Seals: 3.5**

**Total: 25**

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Alright, Naruto's graduated! Now it's all Naruto-centric as we follow him on his journey towards the big red and white hat! Yeah...<strong>

**Leave a review**

**Raiden.**


	10. Coming of the Storm

**Disclaimer: Urgh, I don't own Naruto. Fuck.**

* * *

><p><span><strong>Coming of the Storm<strong>

Whoever came up with the week long wait till the orientation was an idiot. Why? Because Naruto had found himself with nothing to do for an entire week. He still had a couple of days left until he had to turn up at the academy and he found himself rather bored. He couldn't wait to go out on missions and do other ninja-related activities.

Yeah, he trained, but there wasn't exactly anything he could do that he already couldn't do. All he could basically do was go through everything he knew.

He could have asked his dad for extra things to train in, but his dad had a habit of only training him when he had managed to get a suitable amount of mastery over something. How he managed to measure what level of mastery he was at with a jutsu was beyond Naruto, it was probably some sort of genius thing that his dad possessed.

Naruto yawned as he looked over the swatch of clones in front of him that were training themselves in several jutsu that were in his repertoire. Seeing his clones fire off some of the wind jutsu he knew caused him to smirk in amusement.

Who knew that stupid clone jutsu his dad had taught him had such an awesome side-effect of feeding everything his clones learned back to him? He certainly didn't know when he learned of it, and his dad had completely and utterly ignored of telling him that little fact. He had to learn of it himself.

...Which was nearly a year and a half later after he learned it.

An absent hand went up to the headband that was displayed proudly on the top of his head. He grinned as he felt it. He couldn't honestly believe it. It all seemed like a dream. He could even remember asking (more along the lines of pestering) his dad to let him become a ninja back when he was nothing more than a four year old runt.

Just a couple more days and he would be raiding castles, saving princesses from towers and kicking all kinds of ass. Life was good.

Wait a second, he was forgetting something...something that was relatively important, "But what though?" Naruto muttered to himself as he scratched his cheek in thought, looking up at the sky with squinted eyes.

"Hey boss," Naruto was brought out of his thoughts by one of his clones who was looking at him with a rather displeased expression, "Are you just going to sit there whilst the rest of us work? Don't be lazy. No-one likes a lazy-ass."

Naruto looked at his clone with a dry spell before dispelling it, "I will not have mutiny among the ranks." The other clones saw what happened to their brethren and immediately gave their creator a unified and hearty 'fuck you' both in verbal and physical form. In response, Naruto just dispelled all of them, "All of you guys suck." He muttered as he got up, slightly cursing the minor headache his clones brought whenever he dispelled a large number of them at the same time.

Naruto picked himself up from his seat, before stretching as he yawned. It was midday and he had been training ever since he left the house, which was a couple of hours ago. He could afford a break to go do whatever he damn well wanted to do today.

"But dammit, what am I forgetting to do today?" He muttered to himself as he headed out of the training field he was in towards the village, "I know it was important."

Clearly it wasn't important enough for him to remember it now wasn't it?

XxX

Naruto made it into village with time to spare...even though he didn't have an appointment or anything like that to keep, so there wasn't any need for him to record the time he made it back into the village.

Instead of actually deciding to head in a particular direction, he decided to let his mind wander and let his feet take him to wherever his subconscious would want to go. Most of the time, wherever he went, most of the time, it was just the place he wanted to be.

"Naruto?"

He hadn't even delved into the depths of his musings for long before someone called out to him. He turned his head to look at the person who had called out to him and raised an eyebrow in surprise, "Shikamaru?" And his voice showed his surprise.

Said pineapple-haired boy nodded as he continued making his way towards Naruto, "Yeah Naruto, it's me, Shikamaru."

Naruto just stopped to look at his lazy friend, "I know that. But what are you doing?" Shikamaru looked at him with his usual placid expression, beckoning to make his point, "I mean, I would have expected you to be in bed doing nothing for the entirety of this week."

Shikamaru let a sigh escape his lips, "I would and all." He shamelessly admitted to the blonde, "But I had to get up for that stupid ID picture and everything."

"ID picture?" His male blonde friend repeated with a confused look on his face, "What are you talki-." And like that, he remembered what the important thing he was forgetting was and slapped himself in the face, "Shit!" He cursed loudly that it startled passerbies walking past him and Shikamaru.

A lazy, amused grin came onto the dark-haired boy, "You forgot didn't you?" That much was obvious by the way he was acting, "I can't really say I'm surprised." He turned away from Naruto, "If I was you, I would hurry to the tower. I heard the guy say he was finishing up in a hour or so…" He looked up at the sky, "...And that was forty minutes ago, give or take a couple of minutes."

He didn't need to turn around to know that Naruto was already hightailing it towards the tower, "You suck Shikamaru!" Came the yell of anger from the blonde.

Shikamaru just smiled easily to himself as he made his way back home. Actually, he could go to one of his special places right now and just stare at the clouds or sleep until his mom sends someone to get him or something.

...Yeah, that was definitely a good plan on his part. A plan that he was definitely willing to follow without any complaint on his part.

XxX

Naruto had managed to make it in time to get his photo taken by the skin of his teeth. Like literally. The photographer had already opened the protective suitcases for his equipment until Naruto burst in.

He had to plead with the man, but he eventually relented and took the blonde's picture, not after giving him a telling off at keeping to schedules. And then he had dreaded going into his father's office to pass him the picture. He just knew his old man would give him either the look or a telling off about him forgetting important things such as this.

It was just a photo, why was their such a big deal about it anyway? Jeez.

And anyway, if he had managed to remember and keep himself ahead of schedule, he knew he would have done something outrageous and memorable to make his ID picture totally out there and all kinds of unique. No matter how much his dad would disapprove.

As Naruto walked through the large glass doors that acted as the exit and entrance of the tower, a small boy bumped into his knees and fell down. He looked down with a frown, "Hey kid, watch it. Don't just run into people," He then noticed what he was holding in his hand, "And with a shuriken in hand too! What the hell, you could have injured me with that thing!"

The boy was wearing a yellow shirt with the Konoha symbol, grey shorts, a long blue scarf that was far too big for him, a helmet with a hole in it on the top to let a tuft of hair grow out. After rubbing his nose, he glared up at Naruto, "You tripped me!" He accused, complete with pointed finger and all.

Naruto just looked down at the kid with a dry look, "Yeah sure, whatever kid." He said in a dismissive tone and with that, completely ignored the kid as he walked past him, 'He sure looked familiar though...' The blonde ninja thought absentmindedly afterwards, 'Maybe he had one of those faces?'

Naruto continued walking before he had to stop one more time as the kid from before ran in front of him and stood in his way, "Don't you know who I am!?"

"No," Naruto replied blandly, "Should I?"

"I'm the grandson of the Sandaime, Konohamaru!" The young boy introduced himself, "You should apologise to me!"

Naruto blinked at him before squinting his eyes as he examined him some more, "Wait, you're that jiji's grandson Konohamaru? You sure grew up." He had seen the kid a few times when he came to visit Hiruzen at the Sarutobi compound, back then, he was nothing more than a toddler. Last time he had seen him was a few years back, when he was turning five or something. A look of distaste came across Naruto's face, "Who knew you grew into such a brat though?"

A look of anger came across Konohamaru's face, "What? Don't call me a brat! Who are you to call me a brat!?"

"The son of the Hokage."

"W-What?" Konohamaru let out in surprise before looking at Naruto, "No way, Naruto-niichan!?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow in surprise, "You remember me?" That was a really good memory if he could remember him from all the way back then, even with the limited interaction between the two of them.

The young Sarutobi nodded his head eagerly, "Of course I do! You're awesome! You used to play with me a lot!"

Said subject of conversation nodded his head slowly, "That I did…" He then pointed towards the shuriken he was holding, "So what's the deal with that?"

Konohamaru looked down at the shuriken and laughed sheepishly, "Ehehe, I was on my way to defeat jiji."

He was on his way to defeat jiji? Jiji being Sarutobi Hiruzen. The man known in his youth as the Shinobi no Kami and considered by many to be the greatest Hokage the village has ever had. All he could do was point lamely at Konohamaru, "With a single shuriken? Do you not know who your grandfather is?" Naruto had a lot of bluster, but there were a lot of people he wouldn't want to fight on his good day, no matter how strong he was, and one of those happened to be his grandfather-like figure.

Konohamaru looked down at the ground with an angry expression, "Then what am I supposed to do?" Naruto raised an eyebrow as he felt the beginnings of some sort of monologue from the kid, "Even though my name is Konohamaru, no-one ever seems to call me it. It's always 'Honourable Grandson', they only see the things that my grandfather did. I want people to acknowledge me for me, not as the Sandaime's grandson!"

Naruto looked down at the boy and couldn't help but feel for him in a kindred spirit kind of manner. It was the same with him. Even though he didn't get a stuffy title like 'Honourable Grandson' like Konohamaru did. Instead, when people looked at him, he could tell they always saw his father standing instead of him. So someone understood the pressures of having to live in the shadow of a famous relative.

'Must be the same for Sasuke, with Itachi and everything.' His expression soured at that thought, 'Why did I just compare myself to the teme? Bad Naruto, bad mind.' Shaking his head, Naruto looked down at Konohamaru, "So to get people to acknowledge you, you planned on defeating jiji?"

Konohamaru vigorously nodded his head, "Yeah! And then after that, I go challenge the Yondaime beat him and become the Godaime!" He balled up his hands into cute little fists, "Then everybody would know me for me!"

Aw, did he actually believe that he could pull of any of the things that he said? He had to give the kid credit, he really believed in himself, "It's not that easy Kono," He blinked and looked at Konohamaru, "Can I call you Kono? I'm going to call you Kono." Because Konohamaru was such a mouthful, honestly, it must have been done with good intentions but why the ridiculously long name? Anyway, back to topic, "You don't just defeat the Hokage to become Hokage, it doesn't work that way. You have to work hard for that seat. There's no shortcuts for that sort of thing. And you're forgetting something."

Konohamaru looked up at Naruto, "I am?"

Naruto nodded his head in a knowing manner, "Yeah you are." He lowered himself to eye level with Konohamaru, "I'm going to be Godaime. There's no way I'm losing the seat to a punk-ass kid like you. That would be just embarrassing."

A tick mark formed on Konohamaru's head...which was covered by his helmet and thus it was rather a strange feat on his part that he could see it, "Oh yeah? I'm not going to lose to you either!"

Naruto got up and patted Konohamaru on his head, with an eye-smile, something he had picked up from Kakashi and his dad, "We'll see about that. Well would you look at the time, I've gotta go now. See ya Kono." Naruto said as he walked past the boy, giving him a wave in parting.

"Honourable Grandson!" Konohamaru turned his attention towards a man dressed in a dark-coloured Konoha outfit with his headband worn to cover his entire head like a bandana and dark sunglasses came towards him, "Please stop running away like that. Especially in the middle of my lecture. You do want to become a powerful ninja just like your grandfather do you not?"

The man sweatdropped when he noticed Konohamaru had stopped looking in his direction and was looking in the distance, "...What do you see Honourable Grandson?"

Konohamaru shook his head, "Oh nothing. Nothing at all!" He grabbed the man's hand and started dragging him away from the tower, "Come on, let's go Ebisu-sensei!"

XxX

From one of the windows in the tower, Hiruzen chuckled as he watched as Ebisu was dragged away by Konohamaru into the village, probably back to the compound where his lectures would continue, 'And here I thought I was going to have to deal with another attempted 'assassination' from him.' He mused as he let smoke escape his mouth before resting his pipe on his lips.

He turned around in his office and looked at his desk, his eyes darkening somewhat, "And here I had thought I had gotten rid of this menace when I retired…" He muttered as he looked at the stack of papers.

Oh well, even in retirement, a Hokage's work was never done by the looks of it.

XxX

(Couple of Days Later - Ninja Academy)

Naruto had somehow managed to surprise himself by getting to the academy not only just a few minutes early, but a whole hour when the day of orientation came by. That had been a surprise, and he liked to think that he was finally improving on his tardiness.

What he didn't like was the fact that the moment he stepped into his classroom, every other student in his class that had arrived early or couldn't get to sleep last night, looked at him with wide-eyes, as if they couldn't believe what they were seeing. Naruto knew where this was going, so he calmed himself down and looked at them, eyes unwavering, "What?"

One of his classmates raised an arm and pointed at him lamely, "You're early."

"I noticed."

"No, like an hour early." Another said, voice full of disbelief, "You're _never _early. Is this some sort of genjutsu?"

Naruto face faulted at the last statement before quickly picking himself up, "Oh just shut up and go back to your meaningless chatter would you?" He snapped at them as he made his way towards the back where he could here Kiba's sniggering and Akamaru's yapping. Kami, just because he was always a few minutes late for everything didn't mean that he was constantly going to be tardy every single time. That was insulting.

Naruto slid into the seat beside Kiba, who was still sniggering to himself, "Oh shut up Kiba, I will hurt you." He noticed Shikamaru and Chouji seating on the other side of Kiba, Shikamaru with his head on the table and Chouji pleasantly eating a snack. He gave them a wave of greeting, "Yo guys."

Chouji waved at him back, "Hi Naruto."

Shikamaru didn't even seem to register the greeting or couldn't even be bothered to raise his head to speak as he acknowledged the greeting through some form of unintelligible grumble.

Naruto just sweatdropped at his lazy friends behaviour before shaking his head, "So you yous excited about today?" He knew he was. He had been able to go to bed last night, knowing that the next day was when he was going to join his team, get his jounin sensei and finally be able to do ninja duties.

Kiba grinned toothily as he petted Akamaru who sat on his lap, "Damn right. I know the team I'm going to be on is going to be awesome!" With the prime reason that Kiba himself was going to be in it of course, "I just hope my two other teammates can keep up with me."

"More like you keep up with your teammates." Naruto snidely remarked at the side off-handedly.

Kiba glared in Naruto's direction, "Oh don't be a dick Naruto. Nobody likes a dick."

Naruto slowly turned to face Kiba with a thousand-watt grin on his face, "But your sister did sure like mine."

Kiba just looked at Naruto with a blank expression. Nothing on his face showed the growing ire he was feeling deep inside him, well, except for the two hands settled into a strangling motion that were slowly making their way towards Naruto's neck, "If I kill you now, will anyone blame me?"

"Ah yes actually," Chouji chimed in, "I think it's called murder. You can get the capital punishment for that."

Kiba stopped what he was doing to consider the ramifications before shrugging and resuming what he was doing, "It's worth it." If it meant the end of Naruto making comments about his sister, it was definitely worth it as far as he was concerned.

"Ha! Take that Ino-pig, I got here first!"

The boys attention, minus Shikamaru, was garnered by the sudden loud opening of the door to the classroom where two girls, one with exotic pink coloured hair and the other with platinum blonde hair were currently panting, regaining their breath.

"Urgh," Kiba and Naruto droned out, "The two harpies are here. I was wondering why it was so quiet in the classroom." Naruto finished off for the two of them, gaining a nod and bark of agreement from both Akamaru and Kiba.

Apparently, the two girls had his comments as they immediately glared in his direction, "What was that Naruto!?"

Naruto immediately pointed towards a seat located somewhere in the front of the classroom, "Sasuke's over there." And just like that, the two girls attention was turned away from him, towards the dark-haired Uchiha in the front of the class who had been rather proud of himself at remaining inconspicuous for as long as he had.

Sasuke, who had his hands propped up by the desk on his elbows and linked in front of him, tightened as he heard what Naruto had just done. One of these days, he was just going to do something that involved a gratuitous amount of violence to the blonde.

"Nice." Kiba said in admiration at Naruto's quick thinking to deflect whatever trouble was going to come to them.

"I know." Said blonde remarked. A despondent look came across his face as he could just feel the suffering Sasuke was currently feeling right now as Ino, Sakura and a bunch of other girls in his class fight over the seat next to him, "...I wish that was me."

All Kiba could do was join in with Naruto's feelings as he grimly nodded his head, "I know the feeling too."

Shikamaru grumbled in annoyance beside him, "Will you both shut up? I'm trying to sleep here."

"You can sleep later Shikamaru." Iruka deadpanned as he entered the classroom, having heard what his laziest student had just said out of annoyance. The chunin came to a halt in front of his classroom, looking over his students with a proud smile on his face, "From this day on, you're all shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato. You're all expected to carry out your missions to the best of your abilities for your home and your comrades." His smile got wider, "I just want to say that I'm proud for all you graduating and want to say, good luck in your future careers as ninja. I'm sure you'll all go far."

A student raised their hand in the middle of the class, "Where's Mizuki-sensei, Iruka-sensei?"

Iruka blinked. Well, he hadn't expected that, although he should have. Just like him, Mizuki had been their teacher ever since his class entered the academy. Of course they would wander where he was, missing out on such an important day like this.

He couldn't obviously tell them that Mizuki was currently incarcerated in the Konoha Correctional Facility for treason now could he? He had to come up with something.

Iruka gave a smile to the student, "Unfortunately, Mizuki-sensei couldn't be here today. But I'm sure he's wishing all of you the best of luck."

Naruto managed to half-suppress a snort at that statement, 'Unlikely.' If he cared about them, why did he go all rogue then?

Iruka heard the half snort and raised an eyebrow, what was that about?

If only he knew the reason that Mizuki was even in the prison was simply because of a certain blonde student of his. The male one.

XxX

Inside a small meeting room inside the Hokage Building, all the would be jounin stood at the side or sat down looking at the projection of their potential students. Minato looked around the room, counting heads of the assembled jounin before noticing he was missing one, "...Where's Kakashi?"

A round of chuckles went through the room, as if somebody was in on some inside joke between them, "He's probably lost of the road of life."

Apparently, that comment by a random jounin was all that was needed to set of a round robin of Kakashi's excuses for his tardiness;

"A black cat probably crossed his path, and now he's going the long way round."

"He's probably helping an old lady cross the road."

"His favourite author is probably in town and he just has to get an autograph."

"Unlikely," Minato cut in with an amused smirk, "Jiraiya-sensei isn't in town yet. If he was, I would be receiving a lot more complaints from the hot springs district than usual." This brought a round of laughter from the male jounins whilst the female jounins just had a displeased looks on their expressions. The Yondaime sighed as he got up, "I'll go get him. Be back in a flash."

"Hm," a dark-haired jounin with spiky hair and beard hummed in thought, "Be back in a flash? I bet you he's always wanted to say something like that." It was just too coincendental that he was known as the Yellow Flash and he just had to say that before literally disappearing like that.

Beside him, a fairly tall woman with unruly black hair and striking red eyes elbowed him lightly in the side, "Yes, because if you didn't have a chance, you wouldn't say the same thing."

The dark-haired man was about to retort only for Minato to reappear with Kakashi in toll. The masked jounin having his usual aloof expression visible in his lone eye, "Now why did you have to go and do that? I was enjoying myself."

Minato shooed him off with a roll of the eyes, "Yes, because you were clearly having a blast." In a graveyard. No-one had any sort of enjoyment in a graveyard. Well, not to his knowledge anyway. The blonde haired Hokage retook his seat after Kakashi had walked off to join his fellow Konoha jounin, "Alright, I'm sure you all know why you're here." The ninjas in the room nodded and Minato spoke again, "Good, doesn't make me waste anytime going over everything again."

At the back of the room, stood Shisui dressed in a dark-blue coloured version of the Konoha standard attire, nothing about his appearance having changed at all in the last four years, 'Alright, first time as jounin sensei. I can do this.' He thought to himself, 'Nothing to worry about. I wonder who I will have on my team?' He finished off as his eyes panned over to the projection of the students in the class.

XxX

After getting everyone settled down, Iruka had started off announcing the teams and the members of those teams, "Alright, Team 7 will be Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura-."

He had to pause as a loud yell of triumph rang out throughout the classroom, "Yes! Take that Ino-pig!" Sakura yelled as loudly as she could, "True love conquers all!" At the back, Kiba and Naruto were just sniggering to themselves at Sasuke's apparent misfortune at receiving one of his die-hard fan girls in his team.

Sakura turned to her crush, her eyes literally in the shape of hearts, "Now we'll be in the same team. Isn't that great Sasuke-kun?" On the other side of Sasuke, Ino let out a dejected sigh at not being on the same team as her crush.

"Hn." Was the only reply she got from the ever stoic Uchiha. Although if one looked closely, they could see a slight eye twitch, but one would have needed a Sharingan or Byakugan to have picked up on such a miniscule amount of movement.

Iruka attracted attention back to him with a cough, "Are you done Sakura?" The pink haired girl's cheeks flushed in embarrassment as she nodded her head and retook her seat, "And as I was saying, Team 7 will be comprised of Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, and Nara Shikamaru and your jounin-sensei will be Hatake Kakashi."

Sasuke's eyes had a flash of recognition at the name of his sensei. His brother often talked about a Kakashi sometimes, even his father. He must have been somebody if he managed to gain the attention of those two people.

With the group of four boys in the back, Shikamaru shot up his head, eyes wide with surprise, well as wide as he could make them. He wasn't going to be on the same team as Ino and Chouji? He had pretty much thought that he was going to be on the same team as his family friends in a bid by the village to recreate the Ino-Shika-Cho combination that had proved to be rather effective.

He was broken out of his musings when he received some pats on his back by Kiba, "I feel for you too." The feral looking boy said, "I would have the same expression if my teammates were Sakura and Sasuke. That does not sound like fun at all."

Shikamaru grumbled as he stopped Kiba's pats on the back, "I wasn't surprised by that…"

Kiba and Naruto just gave him a look before shrugging and returning their attention back to Iruka who had moved on. Not wanting to miss out on having their name called out, along with which team were they placed on.

"Team 8 will be composed of Aburame Shino, Namikaze Naruto and Hyuuga Hinata." Iruka continued as he looked down on the list, "Your jounin-sensei will be Uchiha Shisui."

Naruto was slightly disheartened that he didn't get either Chouji or Kiba on his team as they were among his closest friends, but he could have done worse. He looked around his classroom at the rest of his teammates and saw that Shino, a boy wearing a sea-green high-collared coat that covered his mouth and sunglasses, someone he's had interaction with in the past, looking at him. Both boys shared a nod of the head before going to the final member of their squad, a fair skinned, meek looking girl with short, hime style hair.

He gave a nod of acknowledgement which she shyly gave back before looking back to the front of the class. Well, all things considered he could have done worse, Shino was one of the more capable people in his class, so was Hinata.

'Now that I think about it, I've never seen her chase after Sasuke like the other girls in class.' He absently mused, 'And Shisui...where have I had that name from again?'

"Team 9 is still in circulation so we'll be moving on to Team 10 which will be Inuzuka Kiba, Yamanaka Ino and Akimichi Chouji." Iruka put away his list to look over his students, "That's all for now. Your jounin sensei will pick you up after lunch, I suggest you get together with your new teammates and get to know each other if you didn't already know them." Iruka gave the students one last look before leaving them alone. There wasn't anything he could do for them anymore.

Naruto got up from his seat, "Well see ya later guys. Might as well go hang with my new team." The blonde said as he left the others as he had the same thought train like others in his class who were moving to seat with their newly ordained teammates.

Not long after he left the others, Kiba and Chouji were dragged away by a fuming Ino. Seeing that this was probably the last time in the world that he could enjoy time by himself without having to spend too much with his new team, Shikamaru just went off on his own, probably to find a place to nap for lunch.

The lazy bastard.

"Hi." Naruto said as he came to a halt in front of the tallest member of his class, "Shino right?"

The tall boy nodded his head, "And you're Namikaze-san."

Naruto groaned lightly, "Eh, just call me Naruto. I'm not into the whole honorifics business. Anyway, I was wondering if you wanted to eat lunch together?"

Shino got up from his seat, "I also had the same thought. Why? Because I thought that lunch would be a great way for us to know each other more since we will be teammates from now on."

Naruto just gave Shino a look, 'What a weird guy. Who talks like that.' He shook his head before he indicated his head for Shino to follow him, "Come on, let's go get our last teammate." Shino nodded and silently followed Naruto towards were Hinata sat, "Hi there Hinata, want to come eat lunch with us?"

Hinata looked up at Naruto with her pale lavender coloured eyes, "Nami-."

Naruto held out a hand to stop her from speaking, "Naruto." He quickly said, cutting her off, "I answer to Naruto. Not Namikaze-san or any other suffix. Not one for them. Just call me Naruto."

The girl blinked before nodding her head, "Eh yes, sure Naruto-kun." She said gently after a while.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the -kun suffix but paid it no heed. It didn't particularly mean anything, and from the few times he had heard the girl speak, she always added a suffix to a name. She was just really polite.

"So about lunch," Naruto began, "You in?"

Hinata nodded her head as she got up, "Y-Yes."

XxX

"You alright there Shisui?" Kakashi asked as he walked alongside the younger jounin, his eyes never straying from the book in his hands.

Shisui let out a nervous laugh, "Not really, no. It's not everyday I get a subtle warning from Kurenai-san about one of my students." After learning of the team that he was to be supervising and teaching for the foreseeable future, Kurenai had kindly taken him aside and gave him a 'talk' about one, well two of his future students.

"Well," Kakashi began, his voice being casual as casual could be, "She does have something of a soft spot for the two of them. I think she's rather saddened that she couldn't be their jounin."

Shisui rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah, I figured as much." He sighed as he placed both of his hands into his pockets, "Well, there's nothing I can do about it. Yondaime-sama entrusted me with this, and I'll carry it out just like any other mission."

Kakashi merely nodded as he walked alongside the Uchiha, "Yeah...but it's not a mission see? Well, it's sort of like a mission. It's just that you now have the safety of three brats to watch over and not only that, but also have to teach them so that the moment they step out of the village on their first C-rank, you're not exactly throwing them to the wolves."

Shisui face faulted before giving Kakashi a look, "Thanks Kakashi-sempai," He said dryly, "Thank you for that rather inspirational speech you gave me."

Kakashi gave his fellow ninja an eye-smile, "It was my pleasure."

Shisui just looked away, dry expression still on his face, as he slowly made his way towards the academy, 'Now I wonder if Itachi was always depressing or whether he picked it up from Kakashi instead.' For such a jovial sounding man, he sure knew how to bring a guy down, whilst sounding absolutely cheerful whilst he was doing it.

Shisui noted that Kakashi was about to branch off and head in a direction that lead away from the Academy, "Ah," The Uchiha let out to gain Kakashi's attention, "Where are you going Kakashi-san?"

"Oh you know," Kakashi drawled, "Somewhere."

Shisui slowly nodded his head, "That somewhere being the Academy?" He asked, "You do know we have to be there in an hour right? To pick up our genin squads."

Kakashi waved him off lazily, "Oh I'll be there. I'll be sure to turn up." He finished as he went off in his own direction, somehow managing to avoid walking into people even though his eyes were firmly in the book he was holding in his hands, garnering several looks of disapproval from various female passerbys who recognised it.

Shisui looked on as Kakashi's back disappeared into the afternoon crowds, 'Just when will he turn up exactly?' He thought dryly as he knew of the man's reputation when it came to his punctuality. He shook his head and continued making his way towards his destination, 'Well, not my problem.'

XxX

(Academy)

Well, this was awkward.

That was the only way that Naruto could describe the current situation he was in. Even though they had decided to have lunch together, talk and come to know each other more, all they were doing was just sitting there, eating their lunch in total silence.

The group of three were sat underneath the shade of tree to protect them from the warm, summer rays. As he ate, Naruto looked over his new companions for the foreseeable future. He was rather unfamiliar with both of them as he never interacted with either for any long amounts of time.

He knew both were sons of their clan heads though. He had seen them from time to time at important village functions that he had to go too with his dad.

From the few interactions he had with the boy, Naruto knew that Shino was quiet. But that didn't make him shy or anything like that. He had a level of confidence in himself. He had no reason to not be confident in himself, he was one of the better students in the academy and someone that Naruto always had trouble fighting against in the spars. And his grades in the academy were rather high, like him coming in third place behind Naruto and Sasuke.

Hinata though, yeah she was the quiet kind of shy though. She was gentle, kind and very polite. Although she seemed to lack in self-confidence. He didn't know why though. She was good at what she did, she was the best at taijutsu for the girls and could even put pressure on himself and Sasuke when they did spar, it was just she was just too kind for her own good.

Like Naruto, Shino was quietly going over his teammates and for as far as he was concerned, his team could have ended being far worse. Although his team was slightly skewed towards being close-rang experts due to the fact that it had both Hinata and Naruto, two students who were ranked highly in taijutsu, he could and would gladly serve as their long-range support.

Taijutsu wasn't really his forte or expertise. He would have preferred to maintain a distance and let his kikaichu (Parasitic Destruction Bugs) attack his enemies from a distance away. And their sensei might even alleviate this slight expertise by teaching them long-range jutsu to use.

"Alright," Shino and Hinata's attention was caught by Naruto who had spoken, "I'm going to say this once, our team, Team 8, is going to the bomb. We're going to utterly blow everyone away. In fact," He set aside his lunch and looked at both Shino and Hinata with firm gazes, "We're going to be so badass we're going to make the Sannin look nothing more than chump change."

Shino and Hinata looked at Naruto before both of them shared a look with each other, "A tall task you demand from us Naruto." The bug using Aburame stated in monotone, "But I agree. I believe our team can succeed."

Naruto snapped his fingers and grinned at Shino, "That's the spirit Shino!" He turned to look at Hinata, "So how about it Hinata? Think Team 8's up to the task of being the most legendary team of Konoha?"

Hinata sank back a bit due to the two stares she was receiving from her teammates before nodding her head, "Y-Yes."

"Oh put some more life into it." Naruto said as he patted Hinata on the back, "That doesn't sound like you put some conviction into that statement at all."

Hinata's pink took on a pink flush as she glanced down at the ground, index fingers poking each other, "S-Sorry, Naruto-kun."

The blue-eyed genin stopped what he was doing and looked at the girl with a curious look, "What are you apologizing for?" Was she apologising about the whole not putting enough conviction at that statement they had made? There was no need to apologise for that. He was just messing with her, "I was just messing with you. Lightening the mood and all that."

Hinata just gently nodded her head, although she seemed to have trouble meeting Naruto's gaze or Shino's at that matter. She was actually questioning herself whether she would be able to meet the expectations her other two teammates had for their team.

For a heiress of a prominent and noble clan of Konoha, she had little confidence in herself and her abilities.

Noticing Hinata's demeanour, Shino decided to change the subject away from their conversation, "Alright, we should eat our lunch quickly. Why? Our lunch hour will be ending in several minutes."

Completely forgetting about Hinata for the time being, Naruto turned to look at Shino with a curious look on his face, "Shino, why do you always talk like that?"

Shino raised an eyebrow as he looked at Naruto, "Talk like what?" He questioned, needing more details for the question that had been directed at him.

"Like always give a reason about something." Naruto said, "You sort of nitpick about the little details."

"Is that so?" Shino said slowly, "I was not aware of that. Maybe it is just part of my personality, like how you end with each excited statement of yours with dattebayo." He gave Naruto a penetrating stare from behind his glasses, "And what is dattebayo anyway? Is that even a word?"

Naruto blushed in embarrassment as he looked away from Shino's gaze. Even if he couldn't see it, he could damn well feel it, "I-I don't know." He stammered out in defence of himself, "It's just a verbal tic of mine. Nothing special about it anyway."

Well, that had worked off rather badly. He had gone in with the attention to see what was behind the whole nitpicking attitude that Shino had, and ended up being called out on his own particular personality trait. And with that revelation, it wasn't up to him to actually call out other people.

"A-Ano," Hinata spoke up for the first time in a while, "Shino-kun is right. We should finish our lunch before lunch is over." Who knew what would happen the moment their sensei arrived? He could immediately take them somewhere and start training them. That was such a bad thing to do, one couldn't do any sort of strenous exercise on an empty stomach.

Naruto lamely raised a hand as if he was in class, "Uh, I already finished mine ages ago." The blonde remarked offhandedly as he idly picked his ear.

"No you didn't." Shino stated as he pointed and looked in the direction of Naruto's bento. He had seen the blonde put his bento down, still with food in it before he made his little improptu declaration, "You didn-How did you do that?" He asked after noticing the orange coloured bento box was clean as a whistle.

Naruto looked at Shino with a large grin on his face, "Do what exactly?"

Shino just gave Naruto a dry look, well, something that was as close to a dry-look as he could muster...which was hidden behind his glasses and high-collared coat, so no-one could really tell what was happening there, "That isn't amusing Naruto."

Naruto just continued grinning, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Hinata let a soft giggle escape her lips as she looked at her two teammates interact with each other. Although it didn't seem like it at first, but it seemed like this team was going to be fun.

XxX

Lunch soon ended and the newly graduated genin filed back into classroom only to notice that there was a group of adults, ninjas obviously by the headbands they were, lined up at the front of the classroom, 'Our sensei's probably.' Naruto had thought as he walked in with his team. Team 8 had decided to act like a team and had decided to sit with each other.

When everyone had come in and Iruka had made a head count just to make sure everyone was in, Iruka stepped up, "Alright everyone," He began, gaining the attention of the genin who eyed him, "The men and women standing in front of you are going to be your jounin sensei for the duration you're a genin. Remember to work hard, and everything you learned here at the Academy to succeed in the future. Good luck." With that, the jounin started calling out their teams by the numbers given to them before lunch.

Seeing that the jounins had helpfully organised themselves into ascending order from 1 to 10, Naruto counted down the line to see which one would be his sensei. He had to blink and count again to make sure he hadn't gotten it wrong, 'There are ten teams, which means they are ten jounins…' He thought to himself, 'Then why am I counting nine?'

"Team 8?" Shisui called out as he took a step forward, his hands in his pockets trying to put on a look of a calm, cool looking jounin. He noticed from the corner of his eye Sasuke roll his eyes at that and had to suppress a chuckle, "I'm your jounin, Uchiha Shisui. Come with me and we'll get started."

Naruto, Shino and Hinata got up from their seats and made their way towards the front of the class. Sakura, sat beside Sasuke raised her hand, "Um, you missed out on Team 7. What about our sensei?"

A round of chuckles went through the room, "Sorry kid," The bearded jounin from before spoke up as he leaned to the wall, "You're going to be waiting a while for him to show up. Anyway, Team 10? I'm your sensei, Sarutobi Asuma, come with me."

With that, Kiba, Ino and Chouji got up from their seats and followed the man, Naruto and his own team having followed their own sensei shortly before them.

Team 8 quietly walked behind Shisui, with Naruto looking at him, trying to remember where he had seen him before. He did look familiar, "Hey, have we met before?" He eventually asked, eyes closed.

Shisui laughed lightly, "Yeah, we first met like four years ago. I'm surprised you remember."

Naruto shrugged, "Not really. You just had a really familiar looking face." The blonde admitted, "Like I met you before or something."

The curly haired Uchiha sweatdropped, "Well, I guess that's something…" He said lowly.

Team 8, quietly followed their jounin commander to one of the villages training grounds. After arriving, Shisui had asked them to take a seat, where they all took seats underneath the shade of a tree, and he stood in front of them, leaning against the trunk of a tree. Shino acquiesced to the request obediently and sat down cross-legged, with his hands still placed into his coats pocket, Naruto sat down rather lazily, legs sprawled in front of him and his hands propping himself up as he leaned backwards. Hinata sat on the ground, but with her legs underneath her and her hands placed on her thighs.

Shisui looked over his team giving them a once over, even though he had managed to get a quick read of their respective files before he had come over. Shino just sat there, waiting. He couldn't really get any kind of reading of the young Aburame, but that's what you mostly got when it came to Aburame's. Nothing to indicate what they were feeling, they were as stoic as they came, 'Killer poker faces though.' Shisui thought absentmindedly, he couldn't even tell if he was excited about being a genin or not.

Then his eyes moved onto Sasuke's self-professed but unrevealed rival. Shisui could practically feel the excitement rolling of the boy. He was _definitely_ excited about this. Even though he was trying to project some kind of lazy attitude, he just wasn't buying it. His body might have been saying no, his eyes were saying otherwise and after all, the eyes were the gateway to the soul.

When it came to Hinata, he had to blink and take another look to make sure he wasn't actually seeing things. He had taken a quick read of her profile, including personality, but he had taken it with a bit of salt. Pale, lavender-whitish eyes of the Hyuuga Clan? Check. Self-confident, noble posture? Half-check. The girl had the noble aura around her that was for sure, but she looked to be severely lacking in the self-confidence department.

'Something to think about later.' Shisui mused as he placed that little bit of information to the back of his head, "Alright kids, I guess we should introduce ourselves a little bit. Get to know each other and everything."

Naruto squinted at the man, "Introduce ourselves how? Like names and all that?"

Shisui nodded, "Yeah, something like that. Maybe even your dreams or hopes. Just basics."

Naruto shrugged, "Alright, Namikaze Naruto, future Godaime Hokage of Konoha." Keeping it plain and simple. It wasn't like Hinata or Shino weren't aware of his dream. He had shouted it enough times in the classroom for everybody to know.

Shino pushed up his glasses, "Aburame Shino." He stated simply.

Shisui looked at him, "Eh, what about a dream?"

"Most people would assume my dream to be rather creepy." The young Aburame replied in his usual tone at the question.

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Oh come on, how can we think its creepy if we don't even know what it is?"

"Naruto-kun's right Shino-kun." Hinata said softly, "W-We won't judge. I would like to know."

Naruto panned a hand in Hinata's direction, "See? Even Hinata want's to know. I'm sure he would like to know too." He finished off as he pointed towards Shisui, "Otherwise he wouldn't have asked about it."

Shino turned his head to look at Naruto for a good few moments before speaking once more, "My dream is to discover a new species of bugs."

Naruto gave Shino a look, "Dude," He began slowly, "That's creepy."

Shisui palmed his face, 'And this coming from the kid that said he wouldn't judge him?'

"N-Naruto-kun!" Hinata let out, "You said you wouldn't judge." She chided her blonde teammate.

Naruto shrugged nonchalantly, "What? I'm just saying."

Shino looked away from the Naruto, "As I said before, I prefer to not inform people of my dream. Only my clan members would admire it." He finished off in a matter of fact tone.

The blonde of the team just sighed, "And anyway, whether it's creepy or not, it's your dream. My dream's to be Hokage, and you haven't made fun of that, so why should I make fun of your own dream."

Shino looked at Naruto once more and nodded his head, "Thank you for understanding Naruto."

Said genin grinned at Shino, "No problem." He let out a yawn, "I respect your dream. Just think it's creepy as hell though."

Shisui sighed before moving on and looked at Hinata, "Alright, let's move on shall we?"

Hinata flustered a little at the attention suddenly on her, but continued nonetheless, "I-I'm Hyuuga Hinata. My dream is to one day change my clan for the better."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, change her clan for the better? He wondered what she meant by that. But by the way she had said it, it meant something that she probably wouldn't be willing to talk about. Especially to someone who she had limited interaction with. Say, someone like himself.

Shisui on the other hand could make a very intelligent guess as to what she was probably talking about, 'The Caged Bird Seal I take it.' He had worked with enough branch members to know about the seal that was placed on Branch Family members of that particular clan. This was actually his first meeting with a Main Family member who wished to change her clan. That was definitely a new one.

"Alright then, I guess it's my turn next then?" Shisui said as he directed attention to him, Uchiha Shisui at your service. I'll be your jounin commander for the foreseeable future. let's work well together eh?" He saw the faces of his genin as they received that particular bit of news, 'I wonder how they'll react to the next part?' He mused, "That is if you pass your final test to become genin of course."

Shino looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "I assume we had passed the test back in the Academy?"

Shisui chuckled in amusement, "Come on. Anyone can reel off a few memorized test answers, throw a kunai and shuriken in a straight line at an _unmoving _target and get the basics of the Academy taijutsu and crank out the most basic of basic jutsu." He had to suppress a sweatdrop when he noticed both Shino and Hinata slowly turn their heads to look at a slightly embarrassed Naruto, '...I'm missing something here.' He coughed to get their attention back on him again, "Anyway, the test you three did back in the Academy is just a test to weed out the prospective candidates for genin. Truth is, there's actually a 66% average failure rate for kids at your level."

Naruto's eyes widened, "What? 66% percent?" He began counting on his fingers, "There was 30 people in our class, are you saying…" He muttered as he began calculating on his fingers for the answer.

"9." Both Hinata and Shino said in unison as it seemed like Naruto was taking his sweet time coming up with the answer.

"9 of the students in our class become genin!?" He declared immediately after getting the answer before crossing his arms and pouting, "I was going to get it eventually. I didn't need your help. Stupid maths and it's decimal percentages and all that stupidity." Where was he actually going to need maths in his career anyway?

"Yeah, whatever…" Shisui said as he slowly nodded his head, sweatdrop evident, "Anyway, as you all figured out, only 9 of you will become genin in your entire class. And by 9, I meant three teams. So out of the ten teams that formed from the students in your class, three are going to become full fledged ninja teams."

"Ano," Shisui turned his attention towards Hinata who had spoke up, "Is it always three? You said 66% is the average."

"Well not really, there is some years when more than three teams are formed, and then there are some years when none are formed." Shisui explained before shrugging, "But 66 is the average for a reason."

Shino who had remained quiet, except for that little outburst to give Naruto some assistance with the mathematics decided to get back on point, "So for us to become full-fledged genin, we will have to pass some sort of test correct?"

Shisui nodded his head, "Yeah pretty much."

"I see." Shino said evenly, "So it's safe to assume that you will be the one to proctor this exam?"

"Correct again." He was going to like this kid. He seemed he was going to be the brains of the operation already. That is if they passed and went on to become genin, "And not only that, but for this exam, it is up to the whim of the jounin to come up with one. For all you know, I could make it ridiculously easy or notoriously hard. It all depends on my whim."

"I see…" Shino trailed off, "So what will be your exam then?"

Shisui had an easy grin on his face, "Oh nothing much." He then pointed towards the other side of the training ground. The genin turned their heads in the direction they were being pointed to and noticed that on top of an out of place small wooden table, there lay three headbands, "All you have do is receive your headbands. Nothing difficult about that at all."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Our headbands?" He said slowly as he raised a hand to his forehead, only to feel the skin of his forehead instead of the metal plate. His eyes widened as he turned to look at Shisui, "When did you-!?" The others also seemed to have noticed as they both checked themselves only to see their headbands missing. Shino's hand was on his head and Hinata was looking for something that should have been around her neck.

Shisui just smiled, "A ninja never reveals his tricks." He then lazily pushed himself of the trunk, "Oh yeah I forgot, you have an hour, or you all fail and back to the Academy you go."

"What!?" Naruto exclaimed loudly, "We fail and we go back to the Academy!?"

Shisui laughed as he scratched his cheek, "Yeah? Did I not say?" He received a look from Naruto, "Oops I guess."

* * *

><p>Stats<p>

Konoha

Aburame Shino

**Ninjutsu: 3.5**

**Taijutsu: 1.5**

**Genjutsu: 2**

**Intelligence: 3**

**Strength: 1.5**

**Speed: 1.5**

**Stamina: 2**

**Hand Seals: 2**

**Total: 17**

Hyuuga Hinata

**Ninjutsu: 1.5**

**Taijutsu: 2.5**

**Genjutsu: 1**

**Intelligence: 2.5**

**Strength: 1**

**Speed: 2**

**Stamina: 1.5**

**Hand Seals: 2**

**Total: 14**

Sarutobi Asuma

**Ninjutsu: 4.5**  
><span>

**Taijutsu: 4**

**Genjutsu: 3.5**

**Intelligence: 4**

**Strength: 4**

**Speed: 4.5**

**Stamina: 3.5**

**Hand Seals: 3.5**

**Total: 31.5**

Yuhi Kurenai

**Ninjutsu: 3.5**

**Taijutsu: 4**

**Genjutsu: 5**

**Intelligence: 4**

**Strength: 2**

**Speed: 4**

**Stamina: 2**

**Hand Seals: 4.5**

**Total: 29**

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Urgh, I am suffering from some major writer's block for my other two stories, more so SM than NG. I've got the storyboards down, just can't seem to write anything. Got a few paragraphs for NG, SM? Got only three words. Fuck.<strong>

**This one seems to be the only story where inspiration comes to me, even with my story board written down.**

**Won't mean I won't stop though. So better expect frequent releases for this story, then probably infrequent for NG and then probably something else for SM.**

**And for those that haven't noticed, Itachi doesn't have the Mangekyo...won't make him any less awesome than he is though. Just means no Tsukuyomi or Susanoo. For Shisui on the other hand though...well, I'll just leave it at that.**

**And just because Kurenai isn't the sensei to Team 8 does not mean she's been cut from the story. She'll turn up here and there. **

**Raiden out, leave a review and all that shizazz.**


	11. The Beginning Of The Rest Of Your Life

**Like I said, the inspiration just keeps on coming. I don't know how, but it just does. Hot damn. Two chapters in a single day? Do you people love me or what? On a side note, I've hit 100k in words! 11 chapters in! Oh diggity!**

**Shutouts!**

**Last of the Ancients: Well, nice to know that I'm keeping you on your toes. Makes me know I'm doing something right. And the Iwa thing? It just wouldn't be a Naruto story without an Iwa thing.**

**tgsm177: End of the weekend I think I should have something for NG. But I can't make any promises though.**

**RandalNubs: Naruto can't be his father. He doesn't have the same cojones as Minato does. His different. He won't be some sorta mini-me of Minato apart from some looks and that's it. I've got a pairing for Minato in mind, just haven't worked out the kinks yet.**

**Someone: I assume Minato is of the same generation as Mikoto, Shibi, Shikaku, Tsume, Fugaku and all those guys. With my data source, all of them were in their late thirties by the time of the series starts.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!**

* * *

><p><span><strong>The Beginning Of The Rest Of Your Life<strong>

Back in the Academy, the recently formed Team 7 were still sat in their class, still waiting for their sensei to show himself. Nearly three hours after everyone else had left. Even Iruka had gotten tired of waiting with them and had gone off him himself an hour or so back.

Sasuke and Sakura were absurdly bored and knew that they could have been doing something else with their time. Something much more interesting than this that would occupy their full attention.

In Sasuke's case, he would be at home, training by himself or his father would train him if he was available. Itachi had long since moved out of his home...and he couldn't help but be glad. The atmosphere in his home had lightened up significantly when Itachi left. When he had lived there, whenever his father and his brother where in the same room, there was nothing more than a frosty feeling in the room.

Even his mother found it uncomfortable, no matter how hard she tried to fix whatever was going on between the two. Well, at least Itachi still kept him in his life, training with him whenever he got the chance, even if Fugaku didn't like it.

'Don't become like your brother.' Sasuke's expression tightened before going back to their usual aloof nature as those words rang out through his head once more. What did his father mean by that? Didn't he want him to become an excellent a shinobi like Itachi was? There was even some talk, small as it was, throughout the clan of the next Hokage being either Itachi or Shisui.

He shook his head of those thoughts. This wasn't the time. Just when was that sensei of his going to arrive?

For the other members in Team 7, Sakura had been switching between staring lovingly at Sasuke and staring strangely at Shikamaru, who coincidentally was having the time of his life. If this was going to be a daily occurrence with whoever their sensei was, it meant that he could sleep in more.

Even though he had Naruto curse Kakashi out so many times in the past, he had never actually met the man. And he hadn't even met the man, and he was already working his way up to become his favourite person.

The door to the classroom finally opened, "Sorry, I'm late. A black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way round." A man with gravity defying spiky hair and masked face with his headband slanted over one eye stated lazily enough as he looked them over with a bored expression. He looked them over some more before speaking, "Hmm, my first impression of this little group; I'm not that impressed at all. Meet me on the roof in five minutes." He finished off as he vanished in a puff of smoke.

The two faces that had heard his lame excuse upon showing himself twisted into anger at his later words. Sakura looked to her teammates with a twitching eyebrow, "Who does he think he is?" She asked her two teammates.

She had to sweatdrop when she didn't get an answer as Sasuke merely grunted and headed for the rooftop and Shikamaru just continued to have his head on his desk, sleeping.

'**Cha!'** Inner Sakura roared, '**He's so lucky Sasuke-kun will be able to pull his useless weight!'** The pink haired girl went and shook Shikamaru in a bid to wake him up from his slumber, "Come on Shikamaru. Our sensei is here?" She said with a few shakes of his shoulder.

Shikamaru groaned as he slowly got up, "Urgh, I had hoped that he wouldn't have turned up for the rest of the day." He mumbled as he followed after Sakura, "Thanks for waking me up anyway Sakura."

"No problem Shikamaru." The kunoichi replied, "Just happy to help. We're a team now aren't we?" Inwardly she was crying anime tears, 'What did I do to get the lazy and useless one?' Naruto, Kiba or even Chouji would have been much better than Shikamaru. At least they would have been more lively.

XxX

(With Team 8)

"An hour?" Naruto asked as he looked at his sensei, well, that is if he passed his test. It looked simple enough.

Shisui with a smile on his face nodded, "Yeah."

Naruto turned his head towards the table that held his headband with a quizzical look on his face, "You're giving us an hour to just go over there and grab our headbands and boom, we're genin?" It couldn't be that easy could it? There was no way the test that would make them genin would or could be that easy, 'But he did say the difficulty was up to him.'

Shisui looked at Naruto with a raised eyebrow, "That's what I said…" He said with a slow nod, "I think my instructions were perfectly clear and simple enough. What about them were difficult? Aren't you supposed to be some kind of genius?"

Naruto glared at the man before looking away, "I heard you. There's no way it could be that easy."

"Or it could be." Shino chimed in as he got to his feet, looking towards the headbands, "Shisui-sensei himself stated that the difficulty of our test would be to his choosings."

Shisui nodded his head at the side, "Exactly. You're a good listener Shino. I hope you're the one that becomes my student."

That statement immediately caused two of the more sharper genins to snap their heads towards Shisui. Shisui noticed the looks on him, "What?"

Naruto, who had been busy thinking how long it would take him to just walk over there and pick up his headband noticed that his two other teammates were looking towards their sensei, "What are you guys looking at?" He asked as he looked between his two teammates, before settling to look at Shisui, "What did he do?"

"S-Sensei," Hinata spoke as her white eyes bore into him, even if she wasn't glaring, "What you just said."

"What about it?"

Shino pushed up his glasses, "You said you hope I become your student."

Shisui nodded once more, managing to suppress a smirk that they had managed to get what he was implying, "Yes, so?"

"Student. Singular." Shino continued speaking, "Not student_s_. Plural. Are you saying that you will only take one of us as your student if we get our headbands?"

"Pretty much." The blue-clad Uchiha stated with an easy grin on his face, "More precisely the first student to get his headband. First come, first serve."

"What!?" Naruto yelled as he sprang to his feet and pointed at him, "You can't do that. I know you have to take a team!"

"Not exactly Naruto-kun." Hinata said as she spoke up, "A jounin can either take on a team of genins or a single genin and make them his or her apprentice."

Naruto blinked, "Wow, where did you learn that?"

"We learned it in class Naruto." Shino informed the blonde, "It was during our class on the basic make-up of the shinoi forces in general."

"Oh." He let out before laughing sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head, "I think I might have missed that lesson...or slept through it. Either one of those."

Shisui chuckled to himself, "Probably busy thinking up of various pranks weren't you?" He surmised, amusement in his tone, "But basically yeah. First one to get their headband becomes my apprentice. And the others?" He shrugged for his answer to his own question.

He didn't need to say anything as the message was fully conveyed. The ones who didn't get their headbands would be sent back to the Academy for failing their tests.

"A battle royale between the three of us it seems…" Shino mused, his voice not even showing any tone of whether he was conflicted on fighting his comrades for the past hour or not, "This is a rather cruel test from you sensei."

Naruto scowled as he crossed his arms, showing his displeasure on the whole thing, "Yeah. This isn't nice at all."

"Well tough luck to be honest." Shisui bluntly said, "As a shinobi, you're going to eventually come across situations where the best course of action isn't always going to be nice. The world isn't that easy. It will sometimes throw you some of the cruelest most unimaginable things it could think of, and it would be up to you to whether let those things run your over or get over them. Lucky for you guys, I'm nice enough to give you a relatively simple scenario by the world's standards." He crossed his arms as he looked over his genin with an even expression, "So what's it going to be? You all just going to stand there or are you going to prove to me you've got what it takes to become a shinobi?"

The two boys and lone girl stood in silence as they contemplated on whether they could honestly just outright attack their teammates just for a chance to become a full-fledged genin. What they had been asked to do weren't against everything they had been taught in the Academy.

Konoha valued teamwork above all else between comrades. This weren't against those values.

Naruto was broken out of his thoughts when he heard a buzzing sound, "What the hell is that?" He asked no-one in particular before noticing that coming out of Shino's sleeves was a swarm of bugs, "...Shino, what are you doing?"

"I apologise for this Naruto, Hinata," The boy said, his voice actually holding some tone of guilt at what he was about to do, "But I can't go back to the Academy just yet."

Hinata's eyes widened, "S-Shino-kun!"

"...Sorry." With that, the bugs immediately went for both Hinata and Naruto.

Naruto immediately executed a quick Kawarimi and reappeared in a nearby treeline, "Oh fuck you Shino! If that's how you want to play it, game on motherfucker!" Granted, the language wasn't necessary, but he hadn't exactly been expected to be attacked by his teammate.

Hinata had been able to escape the swarm of bugs that she had noted hadn't chased after her. It seemed they had only been sent after her to make her retreat further back as Shino himself headed for the table.

Now the young Hyuuga heiress found herself in something of a conundrum. She didn't want to fail and at the same time, she didn't want to fight her comrades and possibly hurt them. If she failed, her father and other members of the clan would look down on her more than they already did and if she failed, maybe the elders or her father would use this chance to brand her and move her to the Branch Family.

...She couldn't let that happen. Not because she was afraid of being branded. She wanted to heal her clan. Make it a proper family, not what they currently were. They could barely be considered a clan as they were now.

Shisui watched with curiosity as various emotions played across Hinata's face as she at first looked seemingly dejected at the prospect of having to fight her should be teammates. This eventually turned into one of unmixed feelings before it turned to determination.

Hinata immediately picked herself up before with surprising speed managed make-up the distance between herself and Shino. Having been made aware of Hinata's approach by his bugs, he ordered them to play interference and try to slow her down.

His bugs did what was asked of them and immediately went to harass Hinata, who was able to deftly dodge or avoid the swarm with brilliant skill and light feet. She didn't let a single one near her, she didn't want to know what would happen if they managed to land on her. This was the first time that she was actually seeing Shino use bugs to fight, for all she knew, they could have been poisonous in some sort of way.

Seeing that Hinata was safely preoccupied and that even if she could dodge his swarm with considerable skill, her attention was now fully on them instead of trying to make-up ground and overtake him. Shino decided to turn to the other competitor in this little rat race of theirs. As he looked around, he noticed that he couldn't find Naruto anywhere, just where was he anyway?

Not long after he that thought had gone through his head, Shino found himself nailed straight in the chin by a fist coming from the right, causing him to tumble and fall to the ground, "Sorry Shino," Naruto sort of apologised. Well, he didn't actually apologise. He just said sorry for the hell of it. He didn't even have a hint of being sorry in his tone, "But that's what you get for siccing your bugs on me." He shivered a bit at the thought before shaking it off. He didn't even get a chance to try and voice something that was nagging him about this whole thing, "Well, whatever. See ya." And with that, Naruto ran off towards the end of the field. He could already taste victory.

Seeing that their living, walking hive had been literally knocked off his feet, the swarm that had been going after Hinata immediately returned to Shino in hopes of doing damage control, allowing Hinata to turn her attention fully to the task ahead of her.

She wasn't as fast as Naruto, but damned couldn't she try and catch-up to him. In her concentration, she accidentally activated her clan's kekkei genkai, signified by the bulging of her veins around her eyes, which allowed her to see all sorts of things that were littered all over the place...and Naruto was right about to literally run into one.

"Naruto-kun! Stop!" She yelled out to him in hopes of warning him, "There's a trap in front of you."

Naruto rolled his eyes as if he was stupid enough to fall for that old trick. He turned and flashed Hinata a grin, "Nice try Hinataaaaaaaaa~!" The blonde yelled as he found himself suddenly falling down a hole.

Hinata came to a skidding halt and ran towards the hole Naruto had fallen in and peered over the edge, "Naruto-kun!" She yelled down as she saw the unmoving form of the blonde, "Are you alright?"

He didn't reply immediately. Instead, a hand slowly raised itself up before flashing her a thumbs up, "...I'll be fine…Thanks for asking…"

At the side, Shisui palmed himself in the face...hard, "She's a Hyuuga idiot. How did you forget that? Traps like those won't even work." Unlike his clan's doujutsu, every Hyuuga was seemingly born with the ability to use it, "Ah well, the question is what will she do now?"

After getting himself up, Shino had borne witness to Naruto randomly falling down a hole, and a thought came to him that if it wasn't for the blonde punching him, it would have been falling down that hole, '...Should I thank him sometime?' The stoic boy thought as he made his way towards the obvious trap.

Hinata didn't even need to turn her head and look at whoever was approaching her to notice that it was actually her other teammate that had started this whole thing, "Shino-kun." She greeted amicably enough for someone who had just attacked her just a few moments prior.

"Hinata." Shino greeted in return as he came to a halt in front of the hole, also peering down the hole, noting that Naruto was now slowly getting up, "...A tiger trap…" He noted and Hinata nodded her head in confirmation. Shino looked up from this particular trap and scanned the area between where they were standing and their collective objective, "I assume that the entire area is littered with traps like this one?"

Hinata thought about it. Should she tell Shino about the traps? This was a free-for-all situation. But the Aburame's statement was more an assumption than a question. So even if she didn't answer, he would be cautious to proceed. Probably the reason why he hadn't just continued past them instead of coming here to see what was happening.

Eventually, she slowly nodded her head, "There are not only tiger traps, but they're all kinds of traps in the area between us and the headbands."

Shino looked down at her in surprise. She sounded so sure of what she had just said, like she knew where they were laid, "How do you know this?"

"My clan's doujutsu, the Byakugan." Hinata answered simply, "It allows us to have 360 degrees vision and see things that others would miss."

Shino stayed quiet as he contemplated this before nodding his head, "A very useful kekkei genkai."

"Thank you."

Down in the tiger trap, Naruto grumbled as he got himself up. Well, tried to get himself up before noticing that for some reason, his hand were stuck to something sticky, "What the hell is this?" He mumbled as he looked down at his hand and then around him when he noticed that he was lying in some sort water...that didn't look like water.

Hinata head Naruto mumble something and looked down the tiger trap once again and noticed something she had initially missed. In the tiger trap was water that had been infused with chakra, 'A jutsu?' But for what exactly? She got her answer when she saw Naruto try to get out of the trap only to be forced to remain stuck to the water.

She frowned as she saw this, "Naruto-kun is stuck. He's been immobilised."

Shino looked at her with a raised eyebrow before looking down and noticed the strange looking liquid down in the trap with Naruto, "I take it that's not water. Why? Because it's strangely coloured and seems to be more viscous than normal water."

"You're correct Shino-kun." She confirmed to the Aburame, even though he had confirmed it himself, "I think it's a jutsu." She frowned in concentration, "P-Probably a water release ninjutsu due to the chakra infused in it."

Shino turned to face Hinata in surprise, "Water-You can see chakra?" Hinata nodded, "Impressive." He complimented the Hyuuga heiress with a nod of the head.

"Eh guys..." Hinata and Shino's attention was attracted back to Naruto who was located at the bottom of the trap stuck in some freaky ass water, "I know we got off on the wrong foot and all, but can you help me out here? I mean, just a little bit?" He pleaded, "I mean, it wouldn't exactly be fair if I'm left down here when you all go for the headbands now would it?"

Shino pushed up his sunglasses, "Ninjas don't play fair."

Naruto cast a dry look at Shino before shaking his head, "Look guys," He began as he tried to think of a way to articulate what he was thinking, "Don't you think this is all a little bit strange?"

He definitely had their attentions now that they were looking down on him with the expressions on their faces, "W-What do you mean Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked softly for more information.

Naruto wanted to scratch his head, in a bid to show that he was thinking, but found his hand once more pulled to the sticky waters he currently found himself trapped in, "I mean, throughout the Academy, we're taught to value teamwork and always to trust your comrades."

Shino nodded his head, "Yes. We know that. We attended that lesson."

"Yeah, since you attended that lesson, I'm sure you'll be able to know that and realise that all teams all have four squad members. Why bother putting us into a squad only to then send two of us back to the Academy? That doesn't make any sense." Well, to him anyway. He had been trying to make sense of it, but he couldn't. What would be the point? His entire being had been ingrained with teamwork and comrades and how that is how Konoha shinobi operated underneath.

Shino and Hinata stayed in quiet contemplation as they processed the information Naruto had just told them. He had a point. Why bother to do all of this just to split them up? That didn't make any sense. No sense at all.

"C-Could it be that Shisui-sensei's goal was to split us up?" Hinata suggested softly. The way she had said it, she hoped that it was true. If it was, it meant that she wouldn't have to fight against her classmates. She didn't want to do that. Not in the slightest.

Naruto shrugged, the only thing he could do from his place down his current abode, "Maybe," He said, "I don't know. But I think so."

"Not everything is as it seems." Shino finally said after staying quiet for a while. This caused the others to turn to look at him, "Maybe the whole purpose of this exam wasn't for us to turn against each other."

XxX

Back with Shisui, the young jounin had merely watched with amusement and interest to see what was going to happen when Naruto fell down the tiger trap. He had half-expected the other two to just leave him and continue, but be more cautious of traps between them and their target.

He hadn't expected them to stop and start talking to each other. He had even been surprised when Hinata confirmed Shino's suspicions about other traps, even if she seemed reluctant and had to think about it.

And now by the looks of it, they were finally getting the gist of the true meaning of the test. You just couldn't be a proper shinobi of Konoha with this trait. You just couldn't.

XxX

(Hokage Tower - Hokage's Office)

The window to the Hokage's office slid open before a familiar masked figure entered the room through this option of entry. Due to the fact that Minato didn't even react to the way Kakashi had entered his office, one would count this as a usual or daily occurrence.

"Kakashi," Minato greeted his former student as he looked up from his paperwork, "Back already from your test?" He asked.

Kakashi leaned against the wall next to the window and shook his head, "Nop." He replied gibbly, "Decided to wait till tomorrow, you know, let them sweat for a bit."

Minato shook his head, "I figured you would do something like that." He said with a sigh escaping his lips.

Kakashi eye-smiled at his commander-in-chief, "Well, did you expect anything less?" His voice as he said that sounded so bright, yet so dull at the same time. How he managed to pull of that feat that involved two different tones on the opposite of each other on the spectrum was a secret only known to him.

"Not really to be honest." He knew his student well enough to know a stunt like this would have been pulled. It would have been strange if he hadn't done that, "So what did you come here for?"

"Uchiha Sasuke."

Minato's lips tried to move to form a smirk before he quickly suppressed it, "What about young Sasuke-kun?" He asked as he looked at his student.

"Well," Kakashi began lazily as he turned his lone eye on his sensei, "I was just wondering why the son of the head of the Uchiha clan, who, mind you, doesn't like me very much because of you-know-what, was assigned to my genin squad?"

"Oh you know," Minato began in a casual tone, "This and that."

"That doesn't really answer my question."

"I know. It's fun. I now see why you do it every single time."

"Minato-sensei, be serious." Kakashi said, trying to be serious with his sensei, but failing at that.

"Can't ever let me have my fun?" Minato said with a roll of the eyes, "Well, someone needs to train him into how to use his Sharingan. If he awakens it of course."

Kakashi stared at his sensei dryly. Really? Was that the best he could come up with? "Does this reason have any political significance whatsoever? Because that excuse is so flimsy it isn't even funny."

Minato tried to show that he offended by that remark, "Flimsy? It's not flimsy at all."

"Uhuh," Kakashi nodded dumbly, "Last I checked, Sasuke had a whole clan to help him with his Sharingan training. I'm not even needed-You're doing this to piss of Fugaku aren't you?" Probably for something the Uchiha head had done. What he didn't know, neither did he feel the need to find out.

A small grin came onto Minato's face, "Maybe, maybe not."

Kakashi shook his head as he headed for the window that served as both his entrance and exit into the office, "Sometimes, you can be a really vindictive bastard sensei." And he blamed it on Kushina for influencing him on that part.

"Funny," Minato let out as he shook his hand, trying to get some feeling back into it, "Jiraiya-sensei says the same thing every now and then. He always said it was Kushina's fault."

XxX

(With Team 8)

Naruto looked up at the others with a thoughtful look on his face, well, by others, mostly Shino, "So what you're trying to say," He began as he came out of his thoughts, "Is that this whole test was probably meant to test out how much of a team we are?"

Shino gave a curt nod of the head, "That is the only logical conclusion I could conclude too with the information that I had."

This whole test went against everything they had been taught in the Academy. What had been the point of spending four years in the Academy being taught the value of teamwork only for it to be thrown straight out of the window the moment you become a genin? It didn't make sense.

Even when Shisui had informed them of the test and before it had turned into a free-for-all rat race for the headbands, Shino had some misgivings about this test as a whole. It didn't make much sense to him.

And after hearing what Naruto had said, slowly the pieces began to fall together, and his previous statement was the conclusion that he had come too with all of the logic he could muster on the problem. He hoped that was the conclusion was the correct one. He neither wished to fight Naruto or Hinata for a place in the active forces as a proper shinobi.

That didn't seem right.

A slight frown came across Hinata's delicate features, "Then how do we show that we're working together then if that's the real objective of this test?"

"How about getting me out of here?" Naruto suggested half-heartedly. Well, he said it half-heartedly, but he actually hoped that they would actually get him out of here. This sticky stuff was really weird and he didn't want to be sitting in it for any longer than he had to.

Hinata's eye brightened up, "That is an excellent idea Naruto-kun!"

"It is?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow and unsure tone. Hinata nodded her head, and Naruto revised his previous statement, "I mean, of course it is!" That was a nice save then. He didn't want to seem like he didn't have any faith in his own idea.

It really was an excellent idea on Naruto's part. What better way to show teamwork than saving a trapped comrade? That was the definition of teamwork. It probably wasn't, but it definitely could be. That was for sure.

Hinata then frowned again, "But how do we get you out?" She aired the problem, hoping someone had a solution, "I don't have any rope on me." In fact, she didn't have any sort of equipment on her. She doubted that any of the others had any equipment on them.

Shino shook his head to show that he also didn't have anything like rope on his persons. Naruto on the other hand had a great idea, although he would question whether it was actually a great idea since he particularly had mixed feelings about it. Mostly the feelings being particularly negative.

"I have an idea…" He said lowly, barely loud enough for the others to hear him.

"Let's hear it then." Shino said to his blonde teammate.

"Well," Naruto struggled to actually say the next words, "Shino could form a rope out of his bugs and then you guys pull me up."

"..." Shino looked down at him with his usual expression, "That is a horrible idea." He said in a matter of effect tone, receiving a look from Naruto that he didn't even react to, "Why? Because my bugs wouldn't even be able to sustain your weight and also the fact that my swarm isn't large enough to create a dense enough object to carry you."

Naruto grumbled, "You didn't have to say it like that though."

"But," Shino spoke once again, ignoring Naruto's earlier remark, "They could probably drain the chakra in the water that makes it so viscous. Thus turning the water back into normal water, freeing you."

Naruto blinked in surprise as he looked up at Shino, "Wha, seriously? Your bugs can do that?"

"Kikaichu," Shino corrected the blonde, "They're called kikaichu. And yes, they can do that." He said as he answered Naruto's earlier question. He turned to look at Hinata, "You said there was chakra infused into the water correct Hinata?"

Hinata gently nodded her head, "Y-Yes."

"Then that is all the information I need." He raised his hands were a lone bug crawled out from the sleeve of his jacket, before more and more came out before a large swarm hovered over Shino's head. With a wordless command, the swarm headed down into the tiger trap to carry out the order, "Anything to do with chakra and my bugs would be able to handle it." He simply declared in monotone, although one could say he said it in a proud manner.

Down in the tiger trap, Naruto wasn't liking what was currently happening, even if it meant that the end result that he would be free, "Oh kami, this is so, so, so gross." He said as various bugs swarmed around him, seemingly hovering atop the sticky water, "Oh please make it stop, make it stop." He said as he felt the odd _bugs_ crawl across his body.

"Naruto-kun," Hinata's gentle voice drifted down from the top of the trap, "If we stopped, you'd be stuck down there."

At that, Naruto didn't know which was worse, being stucky down here with some suspicious sticky as fuck liquid or being crawled all over the place by Shino's bugs. Speaking of which, where did he keep them all? Was it under that big ass jacket of his?

"Fine!" Naruto declared as he bunched up, "But I swear to kami, if one of these things goes into my mouth, I'm going beserk on your ass Shino."

Shino didn't react to the threat at all, "I doubt you would go beserk if one of the bugs that went into your mouth was poisonous." He informed Naruto offhandedly as his swarm continued to drain away the chakra in the liquid, "Why? Because you would most likely be feeling the effects of the poison."

Naruto paled as he snapped his head towards Shino, "Your bugs are poisonous!?" He shrieked out. He knew he healed fast because of what he held inside him, but he didn't know what that meant when it came to poisons.

Shino simply pushed up his glasses calmly, "Some of them are." He mostly mixed the cultivated poisonous ones into his normal swarm to act as something a trump card. But he didn't mix those poisonous ones into his particular swarm, with his poisonous bugs being slightly more noticeable than his normal ones.

But Naruto didn't need to know that. Make fun of his diligently grown hive does he? Not on his watch, "If you continue to insult them, they may 'accidentally' slip into your mouth as retribution." Naruto immediately clamped his mouth shut, "There's also your eyes, ears, nostrils, anus...and probably your most important tool as a male." He listed off rather simply all the places his bugs could invade his body from, "Or if you prefer, they could just burrow through your skin? But where would the fun in that be?"

Naruto's skin paled significantly as his eyes widened and he sweated profusely, "...I'll be a good boy."

"Good."

At the side lines, Hinata just heard the entire interaction with a sweatdrop on her head, "Wasn't that a little bit excessive Shino-kun?" She asked with a slightly unsure laughter.

"Not really, no."

Hinata and Shisui didn't think so, 'Note to self; don't piss of the Aburame.' Shisui thought with a dry expression as he watched his probable students work together, 'Kid can hold a grudge.'

It took a while, but before long, Naruto noticed that he could move his arms with more freedom with each passing second. Not long afterwards, he found himself that the sticky water-like substance was now nothing more than normal water.

With their job done after having drained all of the chakra in the liquid, turning it back to water, the Shino's swarm of bugs made their way back to their hive inside the Aburame, "I believe you can make your own way back up."

Naruto gave him a weak thumbs up, "Y-Yeah." The blonde said as he jumped out of the trap, 'I may have pissed him off...' He thought as he made sure to have jumped to the other side of Hinata, just in case he would be able to hide behind her in case he tried something, 'Dad was right, I do run my mouth off.'

Hinata noticed what Naruto did and whispered assurances to him, "I'm sure Shino-kun won't do anything." She quietly said to him, before looking unsure of her statement, "I think." Well, at least she tried.

"You know," The three genins immediately jumped to look behind them to see Shisui standing their with an unreadable expression on his face, "At the rate you guys are going, I'll be forced to send all fo you back to the Academy. It seems like none of you are willing to fight to be my student."

Naruto gulped as he saw the look Shisui was giving them before taking a step forward, "Y-Yeah, we decided that we're not going to do what you said."

Shisui raised an eyebrow, "Oho," He let out, "And why is that?"

"Because your test is stupid!"

"...Huh?"

"I believe what Naruto is trying to say," Shino stepped in, "Is that we managed to figure out the true meaning behind your exam Shisui-sensei."

Shisui feigned ignorance, "True meaning?" The three genin nodded, "What true meaning? My test doesn't have any true meaning. All you had to do was race for the headbands, probably fight amongst each other, navigate around the traps I set and the first one to get theirs back would become my student. Simple." He said, repeating his earlier instructions, "No hidden meaning."

The looks on the genins faces, well, two of them anyway immediately took on ones of worry. Surprisingly, it was Hinata, the shy one that stepped up, "Even if there was no hidden meaning, why would we spent four years in the Academy learning things that we will have to abandon to become ninja?"

Naruto eagerly nodded with Hinata's query, "Yeah, what she said!"

That was a very good question and Shisui to admit that and he also had a good answer he could make up on the fly. But the whole point of the exercise and test had been met, there was no need to mess with them anymore.

He waved his hand in a dismissive manner, "Alright, meet me back here tomorrow 9 a.m sharp." He said as he turned around and began to walk off. He felt eyes on him as he walked away and stopped to look back, "...What?" He asked when he saw the surprised look on his students faces, not including Shino of course.

Naruto lamely raised a hand, "Did you just say meet you here again tomorrow at 9 a.m sharp?"

Shisui nodded, "That I did. Are you deaf?" He asked.

Naruto shook his head, "So that does mean we pass?" Hinata asked softly, rather surprised.

"Well yeah," Shisui said with a shrug of the shoulders, "If you hadn't passed, I would have said don't bother turning up here tomorrow." He looked at them curiously, "Do you not want to show up here again tomorrow?"

The three genins shook their heads, "Hell no!" With Naruto vocalising their thoughts.

"Then 9 a.m sharp tomorrow." He turned back around and continued walking, "I really do hope that I won't be repeating the things I say to you guys over and over again. Bye guys, see you tomorrow! And your headbands are in front of you on the ground!" And with that, he vanished from sight.

The group of three looked down and just like Shisui said, their headbands were placed neatly on the ground in front of them. Seriously, how fast was he to be able to move so quickly and do things that quick without them noticing?

All of them picked up their respective headbands and tied them. Shino and Naruto around their forehead and Hinata around her neck like a bandana.

"Wow, that is cool." Naruto said after he saw Shisui simply vanish as he walked, "I have to learn how to do that." His dad did it, Kakashi did it, Jiraiya did it, hell everyone who was some sort of strong did it. Vanishing from sight had to be some sort of cool merit badge that showed you were not to be trifled with.

But before he could go to his dad and ask what that trick was called, he had to do one thing first, "Yatta! We're genin!" The blonde declared to the heavens loudly, surprising Shino and Hinata at the sudden increase in volume.

Shino simply nodded his head, even as he suppressed the urge to nurse his ears, "It seems so." With that, he began walking away from the group before stopping, "...I apologise for attacking you earlier. There was no malice in it."

Naruto waved him off, "Oh it's nothing. Gotta do what you gotta do." He finished off as he linked his hands behind his head.

Shino simply stood there, seemingly waiting for something. Naruto and Hinata just stared before Hinata's eyes widened slightly in recognition before leaning in towards Naruto, "I believe this is where you apologise to him for punching him Naruto-kun." She whispered to the blue-eyed blonde.

"I have to?" Naruto said dumbly, receiving a look from Hinata, "Fine," He muttered with a roll of the eyes, "And I'm sorry for punching you." That was enough to satisfy Shino who nodded and continued on his way.

Hinata bowed slightly at Naruto, "Well, I'll be going now Naruto-kun, take care." She said as she also walked off in her own direction.

Naruto waved after her excitedly, "Bye Hinata! Take care! See you tomorrow!" He shouted at her back. Naruto looked in the direction of the village where he could see the faint outline of the Hokage monument. He punched a fist in the direction and held it, "Just you wait, my face will be up there, with number one right on top of it." He declared confidently with a smirk. And with that, he turned around, and walked off.

...Right into another tiger trap, "Fuck! Not again!" He cursed, "Not this sticky stuff again!" Another round of curses soon followed, "Hello? Anybody out there? Hinata? Shisui-sensei?...Shino?" He called out for any sort of assistance, "Argh, I better not be stuck here all night, that would suck." At that instance thunder boomed in the distance, "...Oh you gotta be fucking kidding me."

XxX

(Hokage Tower - Hokage's Office)

A knock on the door of the Hokage rang out, "Enter." Minato said, as he placed some paperwork in front of him. He looked up to see Shisui enter his office, "Ah Shisui, here to report in?"

Shisui nodded as he came to a halt in front of the Hokage, "Yes Hokage-sama."

"Well?"

The Uchiha jounin smiled lightly, "I can safely say that Team 8 has passed." He noticed the look on Minato's face, "You don't seem surprised Hokage-sama."

Minato just grinned as he gave something of a nonchalant shrug, "What can I say? I had faith in my son." Shisui nodded with a small smile of his own, "If that is all, you're dismissed."

Shisui nodded and soon left the office, closing the door lightly behind him. Minato whirled in his chair to look at the village behind him, "I knew you could do it Naruto." He said softly as his eyes panned over the village before going into the distance, 'Hmm, seems like thunder.' He idly noted.

XxX

(Hyuuga Compound)

"Father, I'm back." Hinata formally said as she sat in front of her father Hyuuga Hiashi, a man with fair skin, the pale lavender coloured eyes of his clan and long black hair.

Hiashi spared his daughter a glance from the form he was reading, "Hinata," He said as he placed it to the side, "How did it go?" He asked, alluding to the test that every genin had after graduating the Academy.

"I passed." Hinata replied, "I'm to meet my sensei and team tomorrow morning."

Hiashi nodded his head, his expression unchanging from the usual Hyuuga stoic, "Good. I expected you to not embarrass the clan." He said, voice neutral, "Who is your sensei and in your team?" He asked out of curiosity.

"Our sensei is Uchiha Shisui and my teammates are Namikaze Naruto-kun and Aburame Shino-kun."

"Uchiha Shisui eh? You have a very capable sensei." The Hyuuga clan head said with a small token of appreciation, "And capable teammates. I'm sure Yondaime-sama and Shibi-san trained their children well. You can leave now."

Hinata nodded, "Yes father." She said as she got up from her seat and made her way out of the room.

Hinata walked through the clan compound towards her house. As she turned a corner, she stopped as she came face to face with a boy around her age who had long brown hair, tied into a loose ponytail wearing a black headband with a two tassels hanging of at the side. He wore a khaki shirt, dark brown pants and had bandages tied around his right leg and left arm.

The boy stopped, "Hinata-sama." The boy greeted neutrally. Well, as neutrally as he could get. Small amounts of spite, barely noticeable as they were, were still in his voice.

"N-Neji-kun." Hinata greeted nervously, "How have y-you been?"

"Fine." Neji replied evenly. He noted the headband tied around her neck, "I see you passed. Congratulations." In the derisive tone he said it, it showed that he didn't mean any of his congratulations at all.

Hinata ignored it thought, "T-Thank you."

Neji resumed walking and made his way past her, "But that still won't change your fate as a failure." He added as an after thought as he rounded a corner.

Hinata looked at the ground with a saddened expression before resuming. She was used to this. She would have to endure it until she could reach out to him somehow.

XxX

(Aburame Compound)

Shino entered his house steadily without a falter in his step. He rounded a turn and came to a halt in front of a man with short spiky hair and a mustache, "Father." Shino greeted.

"Shino." His father greeted in kind with a nod of the head, "How did it go?"

"I passed."

"Congratulations."

"Thank you."

"And your team?"

Shino pushed up his sunglasses, "Uchiha Shisui is our sensei and my teammates are Namikaze Naruto and Hyuuga Hinata."

His father nodded his head, "A slightly specialised team." Shibi noted from the information he received, "But I'm sure someone of Shisui-san's capabilities will be able to round you out."

"I expect so."

XxX

(Uchiha Compound)

Sasuke let out a small sigh as he entered his home. He slipped of his sandals and sat them up neatly before heading to find his father. He would probably want to learn of how his team was composed and maybe he would be able to learn something about this Hatake Kakashi.

Something he could be able to use against the man. His tardiness and demeanour just couldn't be normal. He refused to accept them as normal.

"Sasuke?" His mother's voice rang out from somewhere in the house, probably the kitchen most likely. It was around that time she started cooking dinner, "Are you back?"

"Yes mom." Sasuke called out as he stopped and readjusted his route to go to the kitchen first and greet his mother. It would have been rude not too.

When he entered the kitchen, Mikoto was stood in front of the hob, stirring something that smelled delicious in a pot.

Mikoto put the pot to the side to face her son and smiled at him, "So," She began with a large smile on his face, "How did it go?"

She was talking about the test that they were supposed to take wasn't she? The knowing look on her face said so, "I don't know." He grunted as he took a seat, "My team's taking it tomorrow."

That surprised Mikoto, "Really? Most teams take them soon after they're formed. Give them less time to get settled and work together and all that."

Sasuke looked at his mother questioningly, "What are you talking about?"

Mikoto blinked before covering her mouth, "Oops," She let out, "I can't give you any hints now can I?" She pulled out a chair and sat down on the table, "So come on, tell me about your team? Is there a cute girl in it?"

The youngest Uchiha in the room just gave his mother a look, "Mom, no." He said with finality. He didn't even think of Sakura that way. She was just plain annoying. He had far more pressing things to do than chase girls, who did he look like? Those two idiots Kiba and Naruto?

Mikoto let out an airy laugh, "Well, you're still young I guess." She gave her son a look, "Just remember, I expect grandchildren. Not now, but definitely in the future."

Sasuke couldn't help but let his cheeks be stained pink, "_Mom!_" He squeaked out, "I'm 12! I'm not even thinking about that stuff!"

"Really? Isn't it twelve the age you start thinking about that sort of stuff?" She asked with her index finger pushed against her chin as her eyes looked up in thought, "I know I started thinking about boys around that age."

"_Mom!_" Sasuke let out in high-pitch, "I don't want to know about when you started, started-" He couldn't even say it. He eventually shook his head to get his cool back, "What about Itachi? Shouldn't you be saying this sort of stuff to him?"

A quick flash of sadness flashed across Mikoto's face, too quick for Sasuke to notice, at the thought of her oldest who had left the household a couple of years back. She smiled at Sasuke, "Well, you know how Itachi is. I'm not even sure he's aware of the phenomenon known as flirting."

Sasuke had to let out a little laugh at that. It was probably true, "That's not nice."

"Then you shouldn't be laughing." Mikoto said as she playfully jabbed him on the arm, "So come on, your team, tell me all about it."

"Yes Sasuke," A new older, male voice said as it entered the kitchen, "Tell us about your team."

Sasuke turned around and his eyes brightened up, "Dad!"

Mikoto looked up at her husband and gave him a slightly strained smile as he made his way towards a seat, "Honey."

Fugaku merely gave Mikoto a nod of greeting before turning his full attention back on Sasuke, "So tell me who is on your team then?"

Sasuke eagerly nodded his head, "My team is made of Hatake Kakashi as our sensei," He had to stop and look at his father when he noticed him noticeably tighten at the mention of Kakashi, "Dad, are you alright?"

Fugaku, who had his arms crossed, slowly tightened one arm on his shoulder before shaking his head, "Sorry Sasuke, continue."

Sasuke slowly nodded before continuing, "My teammates are Haruno Sakura and Nara Shikamaru."

"And are they any good?"

Sasuke gave a shrug, "I don't know. Sakura is considered the Kunoichi of the Year, but…" He trailed off. He didn't particularly think highly of her skills. If he had to choose, he would have preferred Hyuuga Hinata in his team than Sakura, "The other Shikamaru, is rather lazy."

"He's a Nara." Fugaku simply said, "It's to be expected. They don't really try unless they have too. He is probably going to end up being your team tactical mastermind. Let him, his clan are well known strategists, but be prepared to act in the short-term. Most of them prepare for the long-term."

Sasuke nodded as he took his father's advice to heart. If the man told him to listen to someone, he would damn well listen to him, "What about Kakashi? Anything you can tell me about him?"

Mikoto looked at Fugaku as the man simply sat in silence in thought, 'I wonder what he did?' She thought, 'Minato knows the relationship between Kakashi and the majority of the clan. he wouldn't just make Kakashi, Sasuke's jounin commander without good reason.'

Eventually, Fugaku finally spoke, "Listen to the man. You will learn a lot from him. He's an exceptionally strong shinobi. One of the village's strongest ninjas in fact. Some consider him to most likely become the next Hokage."

Sasuke's eyes widened as he thought back to the lazy looking man that didn't seem at all special from earlier today, "Him?" He asked in surprise, "Him? Really? Is he stronger than Itachi-nii?" Sasuke had to curse himself when he said that name as he immediately saw the flash of anger on his father's face. He swore the room temperature dropped a few degrees.

It had recently become like this. Itachi's name had somehow become taboo in front of his father, 'Just what did Itachi-nii do?' When he asked his father or brother, neither would talk about it. Even mother didn't talk about it, but it was more along the lines that she thought it wasn't her place.

"...I wouldn't know who's stronger." Fugaku said as he finally spoke, "But it is said Kakashi maybe able to be a match for many a people in battle. Maybe...Itachi himself." He strained himself to say that name.

The Uchiha patriarch then got up, "Do well tomorrow Sasuke." He said as he headed for the exit, "I won't be home tonight Mikoto. I'll be at the office."

Mikoto nodded her head, "Yes, dear."

XxX

Outside the kitchen window, an Anbu stood leaning against the wall, listening in on the conversation the family was having. Behind the mask, a small smile formed, 'Kakashi-sempai huh?' The Anbu thought, 'You will do well underneath him Sasuke.' The Anbu thought before his body seemingly split into crows that flew off into the night.

XxX

(The Next Day)

Hinata and Shino had run into each other on their way towards the training ground they were supposed to meet their sensei at. When they had arrived, they had been met by Naruto already their, sat underneath a tree in the shade of the early morning sun.

They had shared a look between each other when they saw him. Not because he was early or anything, taking into account his reputation in the Academy, but because of the fact that he was seemingly in something of a mood.

He just sat there, glaring at nothing or maybe glaring at everything. They couldn't tell.

This was the scene Shisui came across as he saw two of his more subdued students just standing there, staring at Naruto. Curious, he walked towards them, "So," He said surprising the two genin, "What's wrong with him?"

After genin her heart rate together, Hinata looked down at Naruto, "We don't know Shisui-sensei." She said softly as she looked worriedly at the blonde, "We just found him like this."

Shisui raised an eyebrow, "Could he be angry about your little rescue mission from yesterday involving the bugs?"

Shino shook his head, "I doubt it." The boy said, "Maybe if we ask him, we will learn about whatever is troubling him."

"Good point Shino." Their jounin commander stated with a snap of the fingers, "And like I said yesterday, brains of the operation." He turned to Naruto, "Hey Naru-."

"I don't want to talk about it."

Shisui blinked, "Okay then. I tried, can't blame me." He then walked to a position where he could look at all his genin, "Since this is your first day as official genin, tell me you're excited?" He looked over his genin. Shino was just being quiet, Naruto was still angrily staring off at somewhere and Hinata was just standing there, "Come on, give me something here. Anything."

Hinata smiled meekly at Shisui, "I-I'm slightly excited."

"Thank you Hinata." Shisui said, "At the rate you're going, you're going to be my favourite." The young girl smiled at Shisui who returned the smile, "Alright then, since we have a long day ahead of us, I thought why don't we start of with a mission first then train in the afternoon? How's that for everyone?"

Shino nodded his head in acceptance, "I can agree to that." Hinata also nodded her head in agreement.

Shisui then turned his head to the stalwart of the group, "And Naruto?" He asked, "What about you?"

"I don't care."

"Good," Shisui said brightly, "Because this is a democracy and you would have been outvoted anyway." He turned around and began leading the group, Naruto coming up in the back, still in something of a downer, "To the Hokage Tower then."

XxX

(Hokage Tower - Mission Assignment Desk)

"Team 10 reporting for duty Hokage-sama." Shisui said as he stood in front of a long desk, Minato perched right in the middle of it and beside him on either side, two chunin.

Minato raised an eyebrow, "It's not even been a day yet and you're already taking missions?" He asked light-heartedly, "Well, some people are rather eager aren't they?"

Shisui turned to look at his genin. Shino...well there was nothing to be said about this particular genin. He couldn't get any sort of vibe out of him in the slightest. Naruto just kept glaring off into the distance, as if he was angry at the world or something. Jeez, wha had happened to him to turn all that positivity he had into all this negativity. It was sort strange that even his own father was commenting on it.

Ah, Hinata, at least he could count on Hinata to at least be normal. She actually showed some semblance of excitement, if the smile on her face was anything to go by. But then again, she could just be being polite. She was such a good girl.

Actually, why was she blushing and why was she trying her damnedest to not look at someone directly in the face? He followed her vision of sight and had to pinch himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming. He was pretty closing to just firing off the old Sharingan just to make sure this wasn't a genjutsu.

He had seen that look so many times. Mostly on the many of many fan girls that Sasuke had. There was just no way.

...But seriously? Really? Wow, that must have been awkward. Especially with Naruto in the team. She sure didn't show it when he was around though.

He then turned back to face his blonde haired commander, "I...I don't really know." He admitted, "But I don't really care either. So yes, we are rather eager."

The two chunins sweatdropped whilst Minato just laughed unsurely before getting himself together, "Alright then, since this is your first mission, I'll let you have a pick of three."

This somehow managed to get Naruto out of whatever mood he was in, as he immediately went back to bright, positive Naruto in a heartbeat "We pick the most awesomest one!" And by the most awesomest one, he meant the one that included loads of fighting and saving princesses from enemy fortresses, "And I don't care if my sentence didn't make sense or that awesomest is not a word! I couldn't careless about grammar." Shisui couldn't help but suppress a laugh at the face Naruto had.

If only he knew…

"Oh welcome back Naruto," Minato said to his son, with too much of a gleeful smile, "I don't know about 'awesomest' but we have cleaning the Inuzuka kennels, sorting out a warehouse and helping a farmer, well, farm."

The expectant look on Naruto's face immediately froze at the anticipation of his first mission and the abject reality of what it actually was. Minato immediately took out a camera and took a picture of Naruto's face, "Ah yeah, this is definitely going into the photo album." He put the camera away and smiled at his son, "Gotta have memories for every occasion now don't we?" He looked at Shisui, "Would you like a copy?"

Shisui just smiled, "You're too kind Hokage-sama."

Minato nodded and went back on topic, smile still on his face, "So what will it be?"

Shisui stroked his chin thought, "You know what? We'll just take all three. We'll have them done by the end of the week." And with that, he began to lead his team out of the room.

Naruto's mood had returned full force after that little episode as he got his bearings back, "I hate the world."

* * *

><p>Stats<p>

Konoha

Hyuuga Hiashi

**Ninjutsu: 3.5**

**Taijutsu: 4.5**

**Genjutsu: 3**

**Intelligence: 4**

**Strength: 2.5**

**Speed: 3.5**

**Stamina: 3**

**Hand Seals: 3.5**

**Total: 27.5**

Hyuuga Neji

**Ninjutsu: 2.5**

**Taijutsu: 3.5**

**Genjutsu: 2**

**Intelligence: 2.5**

**Strength: 2.5**

**Speed: 3 **

**Stamina: 2**

**Hand Seals: 3**

**Total: 21**

Aburame Shibi

**Ninjutsu: 4.5**  
><span>

**Taijutsu: 2.5**

**Genjutsu: 2.5**

**Intelligence: 4.5**

**Strength: 3**

**Speed: 3**

**Stamina: 3**

**Hand Seals: 4**

**Total: 27**

Haruno Sakura

**Ninjutsu: 1.5**

**Taijutsu: 1**

**Genjutsu: 3**

**Intelligence: 3.5**

**Strength: 0.5**

**Speed: 1**

**Stamina: 1**

**Hand Seals: 4**

**Total: 15.5**

Nara Shikamaru

**Ninjutsu: 2.5**

**Taijutsu: 1.5**

**Genjutsu: 2.5**

**Intelligence: 5**

**Strength: 1.5**

**Speed: 2**

**Stamina: 1.5**

**Hand Seals: 2.5**

**Total: 19**

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Urgh, might have been a little bit too harsh on Sakura when Sasuke was talking about his team. Don't know though. I just thought that's how he would see her as she currently is, useless and an annoyance (Sorry all those Sakura fans out there who count as my fans.) Don't worry though, his opinion will change later on when she actually improves.<strong>

**I hope you liked that little interaction in the Uchiha household? I thought I might have revealed a bit too much about the status between Fugaku and Itachi and what's going on in the house itself. Honestly, that's how I would have seen it if the massacre hadn't occurred. Fugaku thought of his clan first, Itachi thought of the village first, different points of views, they would have clashed eventually.**

**Shisui's test...I think it could have been better, or something different, but it sounded way better when it was in my head. Just harder putting it down on paper. I think I re-wrote that part several times and I still think its rather shite.**

**Hinata doesn't have a crush on Naruto because Naruto never suffered, because if I'm correct, she empathised with him, which eventually led to her liking - loving him. But she does have a crush on someone. Cookies for whoever guesses who it is and why. Lemme just say it is the definition of a childish crush.**

**And about the whole Neji thing, some of you might be thinking, his dad's alive, what's his problem? Don't worry, all will be revealed in time. But if you can't wait, just think about it.**

**Shibi and Shino...the single handedly most boring conversation I have ever wrote. I couldn't think of anything to spazz it up. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero. Fuck. I'm definitely not doing that again. Well, I'll probably have too, but I won't enjoy. Like how I'll definitely have to watch Newcastle play, knowing that I won't enjoy it because they'll play shit and we'll lose. Something like that.**

***Sighs* It's tough being a Magpie (The ones in the Premier League, not those other shitty ones in the lower leagues).**

**Don't mind Naruto's behaviour at the end of the chapter...he's just suffering from the after-effects of a bad day. He'll be right as rain soon enough. And speaking of our favourite knucklehead, I am completely and utterly flabbergasted pairing wise. So many girls, don't know who to choose. But I do have one in definite (Cue all you no NaruHina's...it's not NaruHina...probably) so I think I'll take a page out of a series of teenage book series called CHERUB, for all you limey's out there who have read that particular series, you'll probably know what I mean. And for those that don't, let's just say I'll try to make this as teenage-y as possible. No declarations of love and shit like that until waaayyy~ into the second part. Fuck, in love at 13? You must be having a floozy.**

**Well, that's all folks, Raiden out. Leave me a review and I probably will end up loving you forever.**


	12. Welcome To The Life

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does. Clearly he should have given the rights to me since he doesn't know what he's doing with his own series.**

* * *

><p><span><strong>Welcome To The Life<strong>

Shisui stood in front of the Inuzuka compound, doing a head count of his genin to make sure they were all there. Suffice to say, none of them (Naruto) had decided to duck out on this particular mission. That was good, it showed even if they didn't like it, they were still professionals.

Well, that statement would have only counted to one of the ninjas in his group who had a look of extreme dissatisfaction at what was about to occur. He couldn't really blame him, he had felt like that too back in his genin days.

His other students? Well, at least they took whatever was happening in stride. By now, Shisui was close to giving up on trying to figure out how Shino actually felt about things. He never outwardly showed an emotion in anything, at all, even when he spoke. Hinata on the other hand just seemed to have come a quiet acceptance and resignation on what she was about to do.

Good girl. If she did that, the less she will have to suffer in the future.

"Alright," The jounin commander of the team began as he looked at his three loveable genin with a smile on his face, "Why don't we start our first mission as a team?"

Naruto cast him a dirty look, "How is this a mission?" Yeah, he wasn't at all happy about any of this. None of it at all. This wasn't what he had been expecting to do when he passed the graduation exam, "We're cleaning up dog crap. This is nothing more than a glorified chore."

"A chore which had been requested by the Inuzuka clan to be done by ninja." Shino chimed in with the usual tone of voice that was essentially business with him, "Therefore can now be considered a mission." He finished of matter-of-factly.

Shisui nodded in agreement with Shino with a small smile plastered on his face, "Exactly Shino. Good boy."

Naruto wanted to dispute at all of this. Rave and rant as much as he could, but he knew enough to see the logic that Shino had presented to him. Didn't mean he had to like it.

He crossed his arms, "This sucks." No matter how much logic that was thrown in his direction, this will and always will be considered a stupid chore. Cause that's what it was. A chore that had been glorified by the Inuzuka requesting ninjas to do it, "Why can't the Inuzuka clan themselves do this." He asked, "Wouldn't it be cheaper of them to just clean their own kennels instead of hiring ninjas to do it?"

Naruto had a point. A very valid point. It would be way cheaper to clean the kennels themselves. Hiring ninja was rather expensive, well, it depended on where you went, but it was still rather expensive to hire ninja.

Shisui would have answered that question for him, if he wasn't beaten to the punch by someone else, "Naruto, you're friends with Kiba and you've come round to our compound so many times, I'm surprised you can't figure out." Well, they didn't exactly answer the question, but more along the lines of chided Naruto of not having the brain power to figure it out himself.

Naruto leaned his head to the side to get a view past Shisui and saw someone he recognised easily enough, "Hana-chan!" He greeted with a wave of the hand, "What are you doing here?"

"I live here." Hana more or less deadpanned as she walked towards the team, getting Naruto to chuckle sheepishly at the answer. She came to a halt beside Shisui, "I noticed you guys just standing here, figured that you were the genin team that took on our request and wondered what the hold-out was about."

Shisui just waved a hand at Naruto, "He doesn't like the fact that they're essentially doing glorified chore."

Hana giggled into her hand, "Yeah, being a rookie genin sucks doesn't it?" She remembered those days. She had been so much hopes and dreams only to see them get crushed and destroyed by the soul-crushing missions that were known as D-ranks, "Well, that's no excuse anyway. Follow me, I'll take you to the kennels." She said as she turned around and lead them through the compound towards the kennels.

Technically, Naruto didn't need to be lead around through the compound, he had been here so many times in the past with Kiba and the others that he knew his way round like the back of his hand. He could have closed his eyes, and he would have still been able to get to his intended destination.

Instead, the blonde decided to pursue his previous line of questioning about why the clan couldn't clean their own kennels, "So about the kennels," He began in a testing manner, "Are you actually going to explain that Hana-chan? Or are you just going to continue walking in silence in all your majestic beauty."

Shisui, Shino and Hinata just turned to look at Naruto with curious looks. Naruto noticed them and raised an eyebrow, "What?"

"Naruto," Shisui began, "Did you just flirt with Hana-san?"

Naruto nodded his head dumbly, "Yes, yes I did." He looked at his sensei, "Problem?"

Shisui eyed him some more before turning and shaking his head, "No, not really."

Hana laughed as she continued to lead them through the compound, "He does that every single time Kiba isn't around. It's so sweet of him." She cast a look in Shisui's direction, "He sometimes forgets that he's too young for me."

"Age is meaningless to us ninja." Shino chimed in matter of factly.

Naruto grinned as he patted Shino on the back, "Funny, I was about to say the exact same thing."

The bug using ninja of the group pushed away Naruto's hand, "Please don't do that. You're disturbing the hive."

Naruto immediately recoiled and immediately looked at his hand as if it was diseased, "Oh yeah…" He muttered as he shook it out, "I didn't crush any of your bugs did I? If I did, I'm sorry." As sorry as he could be. Which wasn't much in the grand extend of things.

Shino cast a curious look at Naruto before merely dismissing it and just continued walking forwards in silence.

Hinata giggled as she continued as she walked beside Naruto, "Don't worry about it Naruto-kun." Said blonde turned his head to look at Hinata, causing the girl to shrink into herself slightly at the attention. Kami, they looked nearly so alike, but Naruto sure didn't act like him, "Y-You didn't crush any of Shino-kun's bugs."

"Oh, thank kami." Naruto let out in relief, "I wouldn't have known how to deal with that."

Naruto still worked under the impression that Shino's bugs hive was located underneath his oversized coat, instead of Shino himself being the hive itself. Neither Shino or Hinata, who could see the bugs populating his body, had yet to correct him on this. Much to his eternal gratitude because he would not know how to react.

Hana shook her head as she heard the conversation between the genin, "You sure have an interesting bunch of genins."

Shisui shrugged, "As interesting as they could be. I have an overactive bumble bee, a shy princess and a stoic, literal walking hive." He looked up into the sky and shook his head, "Yeah, they're definitely interesting."

Hana looked at him with something of a familial look in her eye, "Ah, now I remember." She said with a tone of realisation as Shisui glanced at her curiously, "I was wondering where I remembered you from."

"Did we take the same mission in the past or something?" No-one could blame him for remembering every single person he had met in his career as a ninja could they? There were literally thousands of shinobi in the active force and its not like he whipped out the old Sharingan to engrain a persons' face and name into his memory forever.

Hana shook her head, "Wow, you can't even remember your old academy classmates mister big-shot?"

"Huh?" Was the intelligent reply from the jounin.

Hana let out an amused chuckle, "We were in the same class in the academy years ago." She linked her hands behind her back, "But you left after only a year I think. You were far too advanced for the normals like us."

"Oh," Shisui muttered as he scratched his chin in thought, trying to remember back to his academy days, "I can't really remember that far back." He had lost contact with any friends he had made during his short stint in the Academy soon after he graduated. At the time, he was rather busy with his duties as a genin.

"Hey Hana," Naruto called out. The female Inuzuka looked behind her to see Naruto and the other genin had stopped a long way back, "If you weren't busy flirting with Shisui-sensei, you would have noticed you walked right past the kennels."

Hana flushed at the accusation that she had walked past the kennels more so than being accused of flirting with Shisui, "Oh please, I was just checking if you recognised them."

The genins of Team 8 didn't look like they were going to believe that in the slightest, "Yeah, sure." Naruto said as he turned and made for the large building, one of the largest in the compound that housed all of the dogs of the Inuzuka that were under their care or had yet to bond with a clan member.

Due to the fact that the kennels were due to be cleaned, all the dogs had been taken out until further notice to make it easier for whatever genin team that had accepted the request to clean it.

The moment that Naruto entered the kennels, he nearly gagged. Now he realised without Hana answering his question why the Inuzuka pawned off their own chores to ninja. With their enhanced noses, the smell in the kennels could overload their noses to an extent were it could be permanently damaged.

Even though Naruto understood this, it didn't mean he liked it, 'Bastards.'

Hana smirked in amusement when he saw the sour look on Naruto's face and the looks on Shino and Hinata's face as they came to a realisation that this was not going to be something they were going to enjoy in the slightest.

She heard a sniffle and looked beside her to see Shisui wiping a tear from his eye. She quirked an eyebrow in curiosity, "What's wrong with you?"

"I just realised something," Hana stayed silent to convey that she was listening, "This was one of my first missions as genin, my very first to be exact. No wonder this had a feeling of deja vu." Shisui shook his head to get back on track, "Anyway, the look Hinata and Shino have on their faces is the exact same look I had. Only problem with then and now is that I didn't bring a camera to commemorate this special occasion."

XxX

The next mission they had taken was located on the outskirts of the village to give a small time farmer a helping hand with his crops. It was harvest time, and all his products needed harvesting.

When Shisui had explained to the both of them that their objective was just to help a 'farmer on his small farm', the group of three genins hadn't expected much. It was just when they came to view the farm, it turned out it wasn't quite so small as Shisui had advertised. It was bloody huge, and there was all sorts of things needing harvesting as far as the eye could see.

"This is bullshit!" Naruto yelled as he made his way through a potato field pulling out a group of potatoes, "How the hell are expected to do this by the end of the week?"

Shino who was on the next roll by, diligently working in silence answered, "Well, shouting about it won't help us at all in our task." He then looked around at the various other plants, "Although I do admit, that finishing this request by the end of the week is a rather arduous task." Did he not have other helpers other than them doing this?

"W-Well," Hinata's soft voice chimed in from beside Naruto, "We can only try our best can't we?" Even though she was trying to be positive and encourage her teammates, she didn't seem at all to be able to believe in her own words.

Naruto grumbled as he continued to pull potatoes out of the ground and throw them into the basket behind him, "If only we had more-." He stopped and abruptly palmed himself in the face hard, "Oh man I'm so stupid."

"You're only realizing this now?"

"Shut up Shino." Apparently, spending copious amounts of time with Shisui, Naruto and Hinata had allowed the normally quiet boy to open up some more. And with this, they had learned that Shino could be a smart-ass sometimes. But then again, he was someone raised to be smart about everything, so being a smart-ass wasn't exactly out of the realms of possibilities with him.

Naruto stood up and grinned as he brought his hands into a 't' shape. Hinata looked at him curiously, "What are you doing Naruto-kun?"

"Giving us a helping hand," He had to thank his dad sometime for showing him the other variant of this particular jutsu, "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu)!"

Hinata let out a small gasp of surprise when the entirety of the field they stood in was covered by smoke. The smoke cleared itself to reveal a veritable horde of blonde haired, blue eyed boys all looking around with stupid grins on their faces.

She didn't know why or what gave her the need to, but she activated her Byakugan to see what sort of jutsu this was. She was surprised when she found that instead of these clones being nothing more than illusions, they had equal amounts of chakra circulating in all of them...and the chakra amount was absolutely horrifying.

She couldn't even tell which of the clones was the real one.

Shino just looked around at the clones, "How will clones help us in this situation?" He asked, rather surprised by the number of clones in the area. He wondered how Naruto couldn't do this back in the Academy, mind you, he wasn't aware that this wasn't the Academy standard Bunshin.

Naruto just looked at Shino with a megawatt grin, "Like this." At that moment, all the clones immediately went to work. One group of a hundred or so clones stayed on the potato field, others went to the tomato field, then another to the corn field, and so on, and so on. Naruto smiled as he let out a sigh as he walked towards the shade of a tree, "Now we can just sit down and be lazy."

Shino and Hinata looked around at the clones working before shrugging, relaxing did sound like a much better action to take than doing what they were previously doing.

XxX

Shisui just looked at the farm with an even look on his face. The farmer, their client, standing beside him had a look of incredulity on his face. He just couldn't believe what he was seeing. Somehow, the blonde kid had somehow managed to clone himself an army that was systematically going through his farm like no tomorrow.

He hadn't actually expected the ninja to be able to have finished up their task by the end of the week. It was just his staff had the week off and would have returned the following week, so it was no skin of his teeth, but now? He could actually see everything done by the end of the week.

At the side, Shisui just sighed finally. He maybe should have told them not to use jutsu on this task. Using jutsu on a D-rank was frowned upon. D-ranks were meant to bond the team together, that's why genin took them, to foster bonds between them so that they could work better together in the field.

Oh well, it had come as a surprise to him that Naruto knew the Kage Bunshin, so he certainly did not see this coming.

Oh well, nothing could be done about it now anyway.

XxX

Their last mission they had took, Shisui had informed Naruto and the others that they couldn't use ninjutsu to complete the mission. Thus for the group, it meant that it took them far longer to sort out and catalogue everything that was in the warehouse.

...Like nearly a whole day longer. Naruto was adamant that Shisui had been enjoying seeing the three genins sweat like there was no tomorrow.

And just like how he had said to the Hokage that they would finish the missions by the end of the week, they had managed to finish all three missions within that week, so that meant the rest of the week, they could do whatever came to Shisui's mind.

Currently, Team 8 was seated in their training ground, ready for another day of kami know's what. Naruto hoped that they would do some training, the sort of training that would be so intensive that they wouldn't have to do another single D-rank again. It wasn't as if any of them were hurting for money.

Unknown to him, his two other teammates had the same thought pattern as him. Training was a far better alternative than those soul-crushing and demeaning D-ranks. Anything else other than them was.

Shisui looked at his genin, he might as well have been a Yamanaka telepath, he could practically read what was on their mind. Lucky for them, he figured it was time for some intensive training. Training that would let him know what exactly he was working with here and then proceed to map out something for them.

He just could train them based on generalisations about each of them based on what clan they came from in Hinata and Shino's cases or who their parent was in Naruto's case.

"Alright," Shisui began as he garnered the attention of the three genin, "I figure it's time for some training. Congratulations on the missions by the way, you didn't fail a single one."

The three of them just gave Shisui a dry look, "...Who could have failed those missions?" Naruto asked after a while, face blank as blank could be, "I could have done those back in the Academy."

Shisui just looked at Naruto and then his genin in general, "I know that. The whole purpose of me saying that was just give you guys a compliment." He said, "So do me a favour and just take the compliment would you?" The genins slowly nodded, "Good."

"So…" Shino said, "You were saying something about training sensei."

Shisui nodded, "Yes, yes I was." He pointed at Shino and Hinata, "I've worked with members of both your clans many a times, so I have a general understanding of what you're capable off, but I don't work under generalisations. I just don't like them." He then went over to Naruto, "And I have no idea how you work Naruto. I figure on who your old man is that you're primarily a close-range fighter? Well, that's my guess and I also don't like guessing. So you know what we're going to do?" They shook their heads, "We're going to spar."

"Spar?" Shino asked.

Shisui nodded, "Yeah. More precisely, you're going to fight against me so that I can see what you're capable off. I want you to come at me with everything you have in your arsenal." He said before giving them a serious look, "And seriously, I mean everything. I want to know what you can do. Give it to me, I can take it."

Hinata worriedly looked at Shisui with widened eyes, "But what if we h-hurt you sensei?" She stammered out, the worry on her face showing in her voice.

Shisui just looked at Hinata. He could have just pinched her cheeks for as cute as she looked right now. Such a considerate girl, worrying about his safety like that. But it was also slightly demeaning. Him, a jounin of years of experience as a ninja, one of the best if he had to say so in his own humble opinion, to be hurt by a bunch of genin that had only been in the life for a few days? That was really demeaning.

"Don't worry about me Hinata." He replied with a smile on his face, "I can take it." He pointed at Shino, "You're up first Shino." He said as he walked a little bit away further into the training ground.

Shino nodded as he got up and made his way towards the jounin and then came to a halt before facing him. He slowly drew his hands out of his pockets, bugs already spilling out of his sleeves, "As you said, I'll come at you with everything I have."

"Wouldn't expect anything less." Shisui said with a nod as he stood casually, "You all have a minute to try and land a hit on me. If I say the spar is over, its over." Shino and the others nodded as they understood the rules, "Begin."

Shino's kikaichu immediately launched themselves at Shisui who clocked them coming in all the way. The jounin was far better than Shino in all attributes as he managed to simply move around them and make a go for Shino himself at a speed the genin would be able to track and follow.

'Let's see how good you are in close-range.' That was the achilles heel of the Aburame clan. They were not necessarily good at taijutsu. He had only heard of very feel prominent taijutsu users in the clan, and that was only because that the type of kikaichu they used required physical contact at their enemy to work.

To start off, Shisui through a jab aimed for Shino's face, catching the younger ninja in the face, 'Was the punch a little too fast?' The jounin thought before Shino started falling apart into thousands of bugs that immediately began reforming themselves around his hand and moved up his arm, 'A Mushi Bunshin (Insect Clone)? When did he pull this off?' Shisui thought in amazement. That was pretty damn good. He hadn't even noticed him pull of the jutsu and then leave his clone as a decoy.

But he wasn't a jounin just for his good looks. Just as the bugs started nearing his shoulder, Shisui disappeared in a puff of smoke, as if he didn't exist.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted from the sidelines, "That's my jutsu!" Technically it wasn't. It was a jutsu belonging to Konoha created by the Nidaime Hokage. Any jounin of skill knew that particular jutsu.

From one of the nearby treelines, Shino emerged throwing shuriken behind him as a means to stop whatever advance Shisui was going to make in chase after him. The kikaichu that he had originally used as a diversion to cover his creation of a Mushi Bunshin and the kikaichu that composed the Mushi Bunshin itself immediately converged back on the Aburame.

Shino came to a skidding halt as he looked over the location that he had previously inhabited. He had been laying in wait looking for an opportunity to strike and think up a stratagem for his opponent. Even though this was merely a spar to see his skill level, he wasn't just going to go into this fight half-cocked.

When he fought, he fought to win.

"Not bad." Shisui said as he appeared from the treeline, "And I mean it. I now have an understanding of how you work. You would be a troublesome opponent for anybody and you use your kikaichu excellently." He finished off as he stared off against Shino.

"Thank you." The bug-using ninja said, still eyeing Shisui. Taking his eyes away from his opponent, even a moment could end badly for him. Shisui might have been taking it easy on him, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't take an opening presented to him.

At an unspoken signal, Shisui rushed at Shino once more. Instead of just sending one large wave of bugs at him like before as he doubted the same trick would work twice, Shino split of the swarm that was hovering around him into two parts; one to attack, whilst the other to defend if Shisui managed to get past the bugs and created another Mushi Bunshin that went off to attack with his attacking swarm.

Shisui kept his attention on the swarm that was constantly trying to latch onto him and suck on his chakra and at the same time the clone that kept attacking him, 'Yeah, taijutsu needs a little bit of work.' He thought as he ducked underneath a high-kick and retaliated against the clone by knocking it off its feet with a sweep kick of his own.

Sensing a presence behind him, Shisui spun round, leading with an elbow and managed to block a punch with said elbow from the original Shino who tried to a surprise attack on the jounin, "I'm rather impressed." He said as he got himself up, "You're all for diversions and surprise attacks aren't you? Well, it doesn't matter." He said as he pushed Shino away before calling a halt to the proceedings, "I've seen enough and the minutes over, so you can go back and take a seat."

Shino nodded and his kikaichu at a silent command returned to his body. The boy then proceeded to walk towards where the others were sat, "Wow Shino, that was pretty impressive." Naruto praised with a grin and a thumbs up, "I knew you were strong." He had held himself pretty well against a jounin, even if said jounin probably wasn't taking any of them seriously.

"Of course." Shino said, "Would you expect otherwise?" He rhetorically as he sat himself down, "But I do believe I'll need some more work done on my skills." Particularly his taijutsu skills. That was his biggest weak point. That particular facet of the ninja arts was something his clan had been mediocre in. They were more in tune on being mid-to-long range sort of fighters than close range.

"But you did really well Shino-kun." Hinata said lightly at her teammates, "Don't make it too hard on yourself." She was worrying about her own spar would go. She didn't think she would be able to put up a good a fight as Shino had done.

Shisui looked at the remaining genins before randomly pointing at one of them, "Alright Naruto, you're up." He said as he motioned him to come over, "Show me what you got."

Naruto grinned as he sprang to his feet, "Don't regret it when I send you crying to mommy." He taunted as he stopped in front of Shisui and set himself up in a low stance.

"Good luck Naruto-kun." Hinata cheered from the side. The girl felt someone staring at her and turned to Shino who had turned his head to look at her, "W-What is it Shino-kun?" She asked, slightly unnerved by the stare.

Shino merely looked at her for a few moments before turning to face the match, "...You didn't cheer me on when I was fighting sensei…" He muttered underneath his breath.

Hinata just didn't know what to make of that. So instead, she did the only thing she could think off when she hurt someone's feelings, she apologised, "I-I'm sorry Shino-kun. I'll make sure to cheer you on next time!" Shino just absently nodded as he continued to stare off. Hinata really couldn't tell whether he was still down about her slight over him or not.

Back with Naruto, the blonde had set himself up and was waiting for the go signal from Shisui. But it never came, instead, Shisui just stood there, a slight aura of depression around him. Curious and rather raring up for a fight, he asked what was wrong, "What's up with you sensei?"

Shisui sighed, "Well, it's just what you said…" He said as he trailed off in slight depression.

Naruto blinked, "What I just said?" He repeated, more so for himself than anyone benefits. He thought back to what he had said just before and remembered his taunt, "Oh, the taunt what about that?"

"My mum's dead."

"Oh." Naruto let out as he now felt like a dick. But how was he supposed to know? It wasn't like a bulletin went out to tell people about who to not make mother references about. But that still didn't stop him from feeling like he was the scum of the planet.

His own mother was dead and he would be disheartened or downright miserable if someone made a reference about his mother, "I'm sorry. If it's any consolation, my mom's dead too. So I know how you feel."

"Thanks." Shisui said with a smile on his face, "That does make me feel slightly better. But you know what will make me feel even better?"

Something about this didn't bode well for the blonde. He just knew it. It was like one of those things feelings he would get when he would try to talk his way out of some kind of punishment whenever he and Jiraiya were caught in places that they shouldn't have been caught at.

"...Do I really want to know?" He asked after a while. Shisui looked at him for a moment and shook his head, "...It's going to hurt isn't it?" At that, Shisui smiled brightly and nodded his head, "Oh you suck Shisui-sensei."

The jounin just shrugged as he continued to smile, "It doesn't matter." He also then set himself up, "So then, since we're done talking, let's get his fight started. One minute, come at me will all you have. Begin."

Taking a page out of Shino's playbook of creating a clone to attack and serve as a distraction, Naruto did just as that, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)!" But instead of being modest about it and creating just one clone, he went and made fifty of them that formed in a circle formation around Shisui.

The number of clones didn't even deter Shisui at all as he just casually looked around, cloaking in all of the clones as they pulled out kunais, getting ready to attack soon, "So your plan of action is to swarm me with clones?" If it was, it wasn't actually a bad plan. Against any opponent, such a large number of clones would unnerve anyone and cause them to make mistakes which can be exploited, but not him. He was Uchiha Shisui, ninja extraordinaire.

"Maybe…" One of the Naruto's said, if it was the original, he couldn't tell and neither did he care. He would soon find out when they attacked.

He didn't have to wait long as from an unknown signal, they all immediately rushed towards him, kunais at the ready, 'He's pretty fast. Around the same speed as Sasuke is.' And that was saying something. Sasuke was pretty fast for his age, 'But then again, on who his father is, I'm not surprised.'

Now under most circumstances, many people would assume that having a larger army than your enemy would end up resulting in victory. But that wasn't exactly true. Konoha, out of the Five Great Nations, actually didn't have that large of a standing shinobi force.

It's active force was lower than the likes of Kumo which had always pursued a policy of militarisation ever since it's inception and surprisingly, Iwa even had a larger standing force nowadays, even with the losses they suffered over a decade ago. Talk about a quick recovery.

But the point of the matter was that, even with superior numbers, victory isn't always assured. Sometimes, it was about quality over quantity. And Naruto was receiving a harsh lesson in that lesson today as he found Shisui systematically and ruthlessly destroy his clones with frightening skill and precision.

Before they had even gotten near him, he had already lost over a dozen clones from a hail of shuriken that he hadn't seen Shisui throw and then when they had finally gotten close, his clones couldn't even touch him as he dodged, weaved and ducked his way through all the attacks his clones were making.

'Argh, this isn't going to work.' The original thought as he and four other clones had remained from joining the original forty-five in the assault on Shisui, 'He's nearly destroyed all of them and none have even managed to land a single hit yet.' He thought with a frown on his face as he several more clones were destroyed, 'Taijutsu isn't my thing. I'm going to have to think of something.'

Shisui could honestly say he was rather surprised. Naruto was more of a problem to fight in close combat than he would like to admit. Several times he had nearly been clocked by the clones due to their rather impeccable coordination and dynamics.

Naruto _was_ really good at making things up on the fly apparently. Because he refused to believe that some of the things his clones, extensions of Naruto himself, had done had been planned beforehand before they were put into action. No way. He wasn't going to believe that, not a single bit.

A kick to the chest of a clone sent it flying through the air before dispelling, 'Okay, that was the last of them.' And the original wasn't located in the midst of the army he had sent after him. So what was the original up to, 'So where are you Naruto? I doubt this is all you have.'

The sound of shuriken flying in the air towards him turned Shisui's attention to the right where, surprise, surprise, shuriken flying right at him, 'If that's all he's got, I'm no-.'

"Futon: Reppushou (Violent Wind Palm)!"

A gale of wind suddenly emerged behind the shuriken giving them a boost of speed that surprised the jounin who had to move quickly to dodge them, "Well, would you look at that. You can use elemental ninjutsu?"

Naruto frowned from his hiding place as he quickly made vacant the hiding place he had attacked from. Since his surprise attack had failed, Shisui had found his position and Kakashi had told him that when a surprise attack from a hidden location failed, it was best to vacate quickly and move on to another location.

Good for him that he had clones to attract Shisui's attention as he skulked around the treelines, "Well, yeah." A clone let out as it and several other newly created clones rushed Shisui, "I love ninjutsu. Ninjutsu is what I do and is what I live for. Gotta love the ninjutsu." It finished off as it and the others immediately engaged Shisui in a furious hand to hand combat, "You don't really seem surprised about a genin using elemental ninjutsu."

Shisui blocked two punches and a kick aimed at him with an elbow, the palm of his hand for the punches and his shin for the kick and smirked in amusement at the clones as he backflipped away from a clone that had tried to sneak up on him from behind, "I could use elemental ninjutsu when I was a genin. It's not really that surprising." Sasuke could do it, and that was only because the Uchiha coming of age ceremony was being able to utilise the Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu).

"Are any of the original at all?" Shisui asked as he destroyed three clones simultaneous with a round kick that left only three remaining.

"You're going to have to fight us and find out!"

"Well, that sounds like fun, but the minutes up." Shisui said as he abruptly stopped and then pointed back to the tree, "Of you go."

"What!?" All the clones let out, even Naruto who revealed himself as he emerged from the treeline, "That's it? Do you have idea that I had something killer on my hands ready to unleash on your unsuspecting ass!?"

Shisui just gave Naruto an amused look, "Kid…" He began slowly, wondering whether it was alright to destroy Naruto's faith in his stealth abilities by revealing that he had him pegged all this time he was in the treeline, "Look behind you."

Naruto gave a bewildered look at Shisui before turning around and widened his eyes when he saw Shisui, a clone probably, just idly waving at him from a tree branch, underneath where he had happened to make himself at home as he thought of a time to interfere in the battle.

He snapped his head back in Shisui's direction, "Seriously?" The jounin in question merely nodded his head with an easy smile on his face, "Oh man." The blonde mumbled as he trudged his way back to the others, his clones having dispelled themselves.

Shisui let out a laugh before indicating towards Hinata, "Alright princess, you're up."

Hinata flustered slightly at the princess remark, "C-Coming!" But quickly got to her feet and made her way towards Shisui who was waiting.

"Good luck Hinata." Naruto cheered her on rather depressingly.

"Good luck." Shino said simply as he cheered her on too.

The girl nodded her head when she heard the cheering from her two teammates. Shisui smiled at Hinata, "So you ready?" Hinata nodded her head as she sat herself in a low stance, the Juken (Gentle Fist). Shisui saw the apprehension on Hinata's face and smiled at her, "Don't worry Hinata. Just come at me, I'll be able to handle it."

Hinata slowly nodded her head, "Okay."

Shisui smiled, "Alright, you know the rules?" The noble-like young girl nodded her head, "Good. Then let's begin."

Once more, Shisui found himself rather surprised at the speed Hinata could move at. Whilst not as fast as Naruto, she was definitely faster than Shino, which wasn't really surprising now that he thought about it. The Aburame fighting style is largely stationary, whilst the Hyuuga have the most dangerous taijutsu-style in the entirety of the Elemental Continent.

There was no such as blocking when it came against a Juken user. You had to either parry or dodge the finger poke or palm strike. And even when parrying, you had to make sure that it was flawless, otherwise, the most dangerous aspect of the Juken would still be put into place.

"You're really good Hinata." Shisui complimented her as he swerved his body out of the way of several high speed, mix of palm strikes and finger pokes aimed at his upper body. And he could make an assumption based on the fact that her Byakugan was activated, her tenketsu were the targets and even if she missed, which was saying something, the internal damage caused would have been pleasant.

Wasn't she supposed to be all sorts of gentle, kind and nice? Did she not know what would happen to him even if she landed a single hit on him?

Hinata didn't answer as she continued going straight at Shisui in a flurry of attacks, all her concentration aimed on trying to at least land _one_ single hit on the jounin. One hit could change the entire makeup of this battle.

However she ended up overextending herself in one of her palm strikes, allowing Shisui to let her follow through on her momentum before making a go for her wrist to throw her away. What he didn't expect was for Hinata to lean forward and certainly did not expect her to just randomly go into a one-hand stand and lash out at him at a kick.

'Well,' Shisui thought as he landed softly on the ground after jumping away from the kick and watched as Hinata flipped to her feet, 'That was certainly spur of the moment.' She had reacted out of instinct to stop him from trying to grab her arm.

If he had been moving at his normal speed, he would have easily grabbed it, but since he was moving at a speed they could follow, it had allowed Hinata to dodge his move.

Wanting to see what she would do this time as the one on the backfoot, Shisui took it upon himself to attack her this time, surprising the girl. She managed to move her head away to the side in time to let a jab bypass her head and then had to immediately react to duck underneath an elbow that Shisui had fluidly rolled into.

'F-Fast!' Hinata thought in shock as she was putting on the backfoot, not even getting a chance to attack as she was purely concentrating on avoiding Shisui's attacks. And she was doing a great job at it too.

Hinata had great control of her body and she was using that control to every good use she could. Even her natural flexibility was coming in handy to try and avoid the flurry of kicks and punches coming her way.

Shisui came in with a hook that Hinata saw and moved her head back to avoid, only to see Shisui immediately stop the hook and bring his other arm in a fast jab, 'A feint.' She closed her eyes as she prepared to be hit in the face by the punch, although her Byakugan was still activated, she still saw the punch coming away anyway.

With her Byakugan, she then noticed a strange sight. The fist that had coming her way had suddenly stopped right in front of her face. She flicked open an eye to look at the fist.

"Well done Hinata." Shisui said as he lowered his fist before placing back hands back into his pocket, "You did quite well."

"...Huh?" She let out after a while before shaking her head, "Is the minute over?"

"Yeah," Shisui said as he nodded, "That's why I stopped." He said as he led her towards where the others were located.

"Oh." The girl could only say as she took a seat with the rest of her teammates.

Naruto gave her a reassuring grin as he patted her on the back, "You were great Hinata. You were really good."

Shino pushed up his glasses, "Of course. She is our teammate is she not?" Hinata only smiled at the praise she was getting from her teammates. This was certainly different from the usual comments she received from her father when she trained with him and her sister.

Shisui merely smiled at his students before gaining their attention, "Alright, I think I can honestly say I have a pretty balanced team. Well for the most part anyway." He finished off with a shrug. He pointed towards Naruto, "We've got our budding ninjutsu expert right here in Naruto, if I take into account your clone was correct in saying that it loved ninjutsu."

"Damn right I do!" Naruto confirmed with a hearty thump on the chest.

Shisui nodded with a smirk of amusement, "Well, I'll probably teach you some more in the future then when I know what you've got in your repertoire. So your homework for next week is to catalogue all your jutsu and give it to me."

Naruto grimaced, "Argh…" Homework...he might as well have been back in the Academy if he was getting homework. Oh well, at least he could probably learn new jutsu in the future then if what Shisui said was true.

Said jounin continued speaking, "I couldn't really see anything wrong with you. You're pretty good in hand-to-hand and if you can't get close to your opponent, you also have range due to your ninjutsu."

Naruto beamed at the praise and fist pumped, "Yeah, I'm awesome."

Shisui shook his head and pointed towards Shino, "Excellent thinking by the way. You're going to be the mind of this outfit, I know it." Shino nodded as he took that as fact. If his sensei said he was going to be the one to come up with tactics and strategies in the field in his absence, then he was going to damn well do that, "Problem is, we're going to have work on your taijutsu. That's the only glaring problem you have. Lucky for you, your two teammates just love getting close and putting the hurt on people with their fists." He glanced at Hinata, "Or in Hinata's case, give you the finger poke of doom."

"Sensei!" Hinata called out amongst Naruto's amused sniggering.

"Oh I'm just playing." Shisui said as he waved it off before looking at her, "And you me lady, are our resident taijutsu expert. That's your strength and your weakness. Your taijutsu is excellent, but when it comes to people you can't get close too, either Naruto or Shino will have to come in and help you."

Hinata nodded her head, "I-I know. Our clan does have ranged jutsu, but my mastery of the juken isn't good enough yet to learn them."

"Then we're going to have to come up with something for the time being." He looked at Shino and Naruto, "And I expect you guys to help Hinata in her training and vice-versa if any of you need to train, of course I'll be available myself if you need to get your ass kicked and have your self-worth questioned." His genin just merely looked at him. Shisui laughed unsurely, "Well, I guess that's it for the day. Back here tomorrow at the usual time, and then that's when we really begin training. Bye." He finished off as he left in a Shunshin.

Naruto got up and dusted himself off, "Well, today was informative."

Shino nodded too as he also got up to his feet, "Yes. It showed me where I have to improve in my skills."

"Yeah, that too." Naruto said as began to walk away, "But it also informed us that Shisui-sensei is one tough son of a bitch."

"Naruto-kun, language." Hinata admonished lightly as she walked beside him.

Naruto just grumbled as he walked. Shino merely didn't react, "Well, he is a jounin and we're only genin. It would be logical to assume that he is far stronger than us."

Hinata agreed with that statement as she nodded her head, "And I don't really think he was going full out on us." If he was, then all of the genin wouldn't even have lasted as long as they did back in the spars with the man.

Naruto smirked, "Well, one of these days, we're going to have to make him go full out on us in the future." The thought of fighting Shisui at his full strength excited Naruto. And because of that, Shisui had found himself inadvertently added to a list of people Naruto wanted to fight sometime in the future when he was strong enough.

"I-I don't really want to do that." Taking on Shisui at full power? She didn't know whether she could. Especially when she saw just how powerful his chakra was. What was even more frightening was the fact that Naruto's chakra was also just as powerful and he had so much of it, more than her father or Neji.

"Oh come on Hinata, have some faith." Naruto said with a grin on his face, "I'm sure in the future you'll be the strongest Hyuuga ever. Even sensei was impressed by you, that's got to mean a lot."

Shino nodded, "I was extremely impressed at how you fought. I am rather surprised you weren't Kunoichi of the Year in the Academy."

Hinata's cheeks were stained in a pink colour at the praise she was receiving, "Did I really do that well?"

"Yep." Naruto said with a nod, "And you're going to be way better in the future. We're Team 8 and we're shooting for the sky."

"If I remember correctly, you said we're aiming to be even more legendary than the Sannin." Shino pointed out offhandedly.

"Meh, same thing."

XxX

Naruto's first month as an active shinobi had definitely been...not interesting. He loathed and dreaded every single minute that his team went to the Hokage Tower to get their mission assignments. The only thing he looked forward to was the training with his team. Although his training could be taken as Shisui just leisurely beating the crap out him, Shino and Hinata.

The older man got a kick out of doing that. And he was positive Shisui hit him harder than the others. When he had complained about this to him, he had merely stated that he could take it. Naruto wasn't complaining about him not taking it, he was complaining about the fact that the asskicking wasn't measured out equally among the squad.

Luckily, it just so happened that on this particular day, Naruto was free and so where Shikamaru, Chouji and Kiba. The boys' were currently in the forested woodlands of the village, just relaxing. Because they hadn't been able to relax at all several during the month.

"I can't believe I'm actually saying this," Kiba began as he leaned against a tree trunk, "I actually missed Shika's lazy ass and Naruto's stupid ass."

Shikamaru didn't bother replying as he was currently fast asleep. The moment they had arrived here, he had immediately picked a spot, laid down, and just closed his eyes, cursing mutterings about having to walk for so long to come here.

The speed that he actually fell asleep just wasn't normal.

"You sure like the word 'ass' a lot Kiba," Naruto said offhandedly as he moved some bushes to the side, "Is there something you want to tell us?"

Kiba eyebrow twitched, "Urgh, I hate you Naruto." He then looked around and stared at the newest addition to their little group, Shino, a boy he's had interaction with in the past and now Naruto's teammate, "So, what's up Shino? Hope the idiot hasn't been too much trouble for your team."

Shino, who had been observing a lady bird that had perched itself on his finger, stopped and looked in the direction of Kiba, "Naruto hasn't been too much trouble. And when he is, Shisui-sensei and Hinata are more than enough to get him back on track."

"Hinata huh?" Kiba let out as a grin slowly formed on his face, "Something you want to tell us Naruto?" He said, "Something like how Hinata's got you," He said before mimicking the sound of a whip.

Naruto rolled his eyes, still not bothering to look at Kiba, "Hinata doesn't have me whipped." She was far too kind to be the type of person that would whip her other half, if she ever had one. Actually, she probably would, give her a couple of years, and she was certainly going to be absolutely gorgeous. Hmm, some food for thought to check out how she works out after puberty had done it's work, "It's just that there's something about her stare and the fact that disappointing her just makes me feel like a horrible person inside."

The sound of a bag of chips being popped open signified Chouji's presence as he sat beside Shikamaru, "But Ino definitely has Kiba whipped."

Kiba snapped his head in Chouji's direction, "What the hell man? Ino doesn't have me whipped!" Akamaru lifted his head from Kiba's laps and barked in agreement, "Yeah, see, even if Akamaru thinks so!" Akamaru barked again, "Wait, what do you mean you were agreeing with Chouji? Don't side with him you traitor." Akamaru barked once more, "Ino _doesn't_ have me whipped!"

For the first time, Naruto finally stopped what he was doing to glance at Kiba with a sly look on his face, "Dude," He drawled out, "If your dog thinks you're whipped, you're whipped."

"_Ninken_." Kiba corrected, with a twitch of the eye, "And once again, Ino doesn't have me whipped. She might be cute and all, but seriously? She's way too bossy." He looked in Chouji and Shikamaru's direction, "How did you guys even handle her bossyness when we were kids?"

For the first time since they had arrived, Shikamaru actually spoke, "Naruto." Was all he said to answer the question directed by Kiba, before promptly going back to sleep.

The feral looking boy blinked in confusion, "Huh?" He let out as what Shikamaru had said didn't answer anything at all.

But Chouji was on hand to give further detail, "Whenever Ino tried to be bossy with us, we always brought Naruto along because they would always get into arguments about something or nothing." He threw a couple of chips into his mouth, "Naruto was just too stubborn to listen or do whatever Ino wanted us to do."

Shino looked up from his work, "Hm, that sounds like a really horrible plot point for a mediocre romance-comedy."

Everyone just turned to look at Shino, everyone except for Shikamaru, and blinked, "Shino, no." Naruto said blandly. Him and Ino? Nah, they wouldn't be able to make it work. She was like a nearly female version of him, just with boobs and all that other female business.

Kiba let out a bark of laughter, "Oh that's hilarious. I'd pay top dollar to see Ino and Naruto get it on."

"Seriously, no." Naruto said once more before giving up and going back to peering through some bushes, "Just don't be so loud Kiba." He told the other boy.

Kiba, for the first time took an interest into why Naruto was so close to that bush and what he had been doing ever since they arrived here. He lifted Akamaru of his lap and made his way towards Naruto and crouched beside him, "Dude, what are you doing?"

"Nothing interesting." Naruto replied, "Go away."

Kiba rolled his eyes as he moved the bush out of the way to see what was so interesting to gain Naruto's attention, "It has to be interesting if the first thing you did was immediately go here and start messing around with a bush." He stopped and looked at Naruto, "Unless there's something you want to tell us?"

"Yes, yes there is actually." He said with a sigh, "You finally found out. I have a secret fetish for bushes and I come here every day to get my jollies out of them."

Kiba went to speak about Naruto's smart-assery but Chouji spoke before he could, "Seriously Naruto?" He asked, tone in disbelief, "You have a thing for bushes?"

"Yes, yes I do."

Kiba rolled his eyes, "He's joking Chouji. There has to be something beyond this stupid bush that he-Oh" He let out as he finally saw what was on the other side of the view, blood slowly coming out of his nose, "...Is this why you made us come out all the way out here?" He asked, his eyes unable to peer themselves away from the sight in front of them.

Naruto muttered underneath his breath, "No, I didn't bring you guys all the way out here. You followed me all the way out here." He didn't know how or when, but Naruto had found himself as the default leader of their little friendship group, even if in the past, and occasionally nowadays, he and Kiba had fights about who was the 'alpha wolf' of this particular wolf pack.

Kiba just dumbly nodded as he continued to view the wondrous, wondrous sight in front of him, "It was a good thing we came then." He said, his tone thanking whatever deity that existed for letting him have this particular day off, "Today has been a wonderful, wonderful day."

Naruto just cast a curious look at Kiba before shaking his head and turning back to his own viewing, "Amateur." He muttered underneath his breath. He was being thankful about seeing a couple of girls, very, very pretty girls mind you, in nothing more than bikinis playing around in the water, hugging and rubbing each other in this hot summer weather? Kami, how would he ever be able to handle the hot springs? He would have passed out just after a glimpse of boob.

"What are you guys doing?" Chouji had finished his pack and seeing that two of his friends were seemingly having fun peering through a bush had decided to go and see what the fun was about.

'Oh great, another one.' One was fine enough, but two? No way. That made it three, and everybody knew three was a crowd.

THUMP

Naruto and Kiba stopped what they were doing, even Shino and Shikamaru stopped their own activities to look at Chouji who was passed out on the floor, blood flowing freely from his nose, and his cheeks stained pink.

It took less than a second to process the information available to him and come to a conclusion. Shikamaru just looked dryly at Kiba and Naruto, "Seriously, you guys are peeking aren't you?" It was more of a statement than a question, and the fact that Naruto and Kiba merely shrugged and returned to looking through the bush answered his question.

Shikamaru just sighed and cast a quick look at the out cold Chouji before deciding that it wasn't his problem at the moment and immediately closed his eyes and went back to his previous activity of sleeping.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Another chapter, another in the life of Brian. Don't really know where that came from, but oh well, it doesn't matter and there's nothing that can be done about it. Next chapter would probably be a few more developments as Naruto meets and interacts with other characters from the series before finally going on his first C-rank. Will it turn out like his very first C-rank he took with Team 7? I don't know, but we'll soon find out.<strong>

**On a side note, I'm now half way through NG and have a chapter and sentence for SM. Progress!**

**Leave a review.**

**Raiden out.**


	13. It's Not Really That Bad

**Obliviandragon: Honestly, I never really understood why he played down himself as not a pervert in the series when he was one himself. And in this case, he is one simply because of who the people in his life are; Jiraiya, the worst influence to ever have in a boys life, Kakashi and Hiruzen, not so bad, but still bad enough.**

**TFXGolem: Well, that was probably my mistake, I realised that he was a bit too canon-ish for this story, so I branched him out a little. He'll show what I would like to think his vastly more improved personality soon enough. **

**Haha, I agree with that statement, I think Kishi was just trying his best to make sure the manga finished off at a nice 700 chapters, whatever his reason for that being.**

**thewhitedragon1993: I have no idea on the pairings currently. I'm still working on that. If you read my AN sometime back, I said that I'll try to make this fanfic as teenage-y as possible. I doubt everyone's gone through their teenage high schools with just one girlfriend or something like that. If so, I fucking applaud whoever has. **

**Disclaimer: Bollocks, ye nay don' ow' tis pissa crap. Tha' jap guy, Kishi whateva' is nam' owns tha whol' thing', absolute bollocks it is.**

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><p><span><strong>It's Not Really That Bad<strong>

'Ouch...' Naruto groaned to himself as he walked among one of the many streets of Konoha. Whilst he was walking, he was absently looking and trying to soothe the red spots located on his arm, some of the only visible spots on his entire body.

Said spots had originated from Hinata as she had been his sparring partner for today team exercises, 'Argh, now I know why she never used that Juken stuff during the Academy sparring sessions.' The girls would have gone mad with the whole spot business and the fact that their limbs would become unusable for a set period of time.

Oh, and it hurt like absolute hell.

Especially when she hit you. Okay then, next time, it probably wasn't going to be the best idea to make fun of her fighting style and make some rather...vague insinuations about being poked. By now, he should have learned that clearly this wasn't going to have ended up well for him.

In his defence, he didn't expect Hinata to react the way she did. As far as he was concerned, she reacted as normal by the usual, being her face turned a new kind of red that would have put a tomato to shame.

And then they started sparring. There was something...lacking from Hinata during that time, that lacking being the fact she didn't at all have a usual hesitation when it came to hurting her teammates. Apparently, making fun of her clan's fighting style was a big no-no with her.

Stupid fingerpoke of doom.

"Naruto!"

Said blonde stopped and took a look around for whoever called out to him. Noticing that nobody in the streets had stopped or waving their hand or something to get his attention, the blonde shrugged and took a step forward.

"Naruto!"

Once more, someone called out to him and Naruto responded in kind by looking around for whoever was calling out to him and once again, he didn't see anyone, which was seriously starting to irk him. Was one of the Anbu messing with him? Which would be knew, since they never messed with him unless they had suspiciously gravity-defying silver hair. Bastard.

"In here you idiot!"

Naruto looked around, "In here where dammit!?" He yelled out suddenly, causing many of the passerbies jump up in shock at being startled so randomly. He gave them an apologetic look, "Haha, sorry about that." He apologised sheepishly whilst rubbing the back of his head.

"The flower shop you idiot!"

Idiot? Who the hell was calling him an idiot? He wasn't an idiot, and he would much straight to the face of whoever this person calling him an idiot was called and then punch them right in the face. Call him an idiot dare they? They would pay for their crimes.

Naruto looked around the shops in the vicinity before noticing a flower shop that looked very, very familiar and he immediately grimaced when he saw the person who was calling out to him.

From inside her family's shop, Ino angrily placed her hands on her hips and gave Naruto a look, in response to the look he was giving her. She impatiently brought up a hand from her hip, pointed at him and then pointed repeatedly downwards to the floor of the shop.

Naruto saw and understood what she was conveying and shook his head.

Ino repeated the same gestures once more, but this time, her eyes were narrowed and her gestures had more irritation in them than the last time.

And once more, Naruto saw the message, understood it, but this time, completely ignored it, linked his hands behind his head and then continued on his merry way. Ignoring the pain in his arms from todays rather brutal sparring session with Hinata.

...Stupid fingerpokes of doom.

"Where do you think you're going?" Ino asked, suddenly behind him as he pulled on Naruto's hoodie and started dragging him towards her shop.

Naruto struggled to at least make some breathing room for his neck, "Can't breathe…" He wheezed out as pushed a few fingers in between his collar and pulled it away from his neck, taking in a few precious breaths of air that he was solely lacking.

Ino snorted, "Oh man." She said as they entered her family's flower shop, "You're supposed to be some sort of badass ninja aren't you?" Kami had she heard him declare it from the rooftops or in the classroom far too many times to be healthy, "Something like this won't kill you."

What, had she never heard of suffocation? Something like that actually did kill people, "L-Let go Ino!" Naruto struggled out as he still struggled to breathe. Thankfully, Ino had dragged him deep inside her territory so to speak to release him. Naruto hacked and coughed as he took in deep breaths of sweet, sweet air and then proceeded to glare at Ino, "That wasn't nice. What did you do that for?"

Ino just crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a look, "Why did I do that for?" She repeated, some hints of incredulity in her voice, "I called out to you and you ignored me!"

"I didn't ignore you." Naruto rebutted as he tugged at the hem of his hoodie to set it right. Why did have to go and pull him on his hoodie? She could have just tapped him on the shoulder or something and he would have got his attention, even if he had been doing a thorough job in ignoring it.

"Right," Ino drawled out with a roll of the eyes, "So what do you call what you were doing back then when I clearly asked you to come inside?"

After fidgeting with his attire long enough, Naruto locked his blue eyes into Ino's teal coloured eyes, "That was you asking?" He asked, "Seemed more like you were telling me to come inside." She didn't even put a question mark after her gesturing. She was simply hand signalling him to get his ass inside the shop. There was no asking in that, none-at-all.

"Same thing." Ino remarked with a dismissive wave of the hand.

"Completely and utterly different thing." Naruto deadpanned in return. He sighed and decided to get this over and done with since he was already here anyway. He made himself as comfortable as he could as he placed his hands on the counter before vaulting himself up and taking a seat, "Alright, let's hear it…" He finally said in a tone of defeat.

The platinum blonde haired of the two blondes turned her head to face Naruto, "Hear what?" She asked with a perfectly, innocent raised eyebrow.

"Come on Ino, we're not playing this game." Naruto said, "Let's just get this over with. I don't want to be here and I've got much better things to be doing than be here."

Ino narrowed her eyes and poked him on the arm, "And what is this better thing to do than hang out with your friend Ino-chan, Blondie?"

Naruto recoiled in slight pain from the poking of the arm, "Because we're not friends Ino." He bluntly informed her as he rubbed his arm to soothe it, "You're the friend of a friend. An acquaintance at best. We didn't even hang out that much back when we were kids." The only reason they knew each other was because of their respective father's and the fact that Naruto happened to be really good friends with a family friend of hers.

Ino huffed as she crossed her arms, "Well, that doesn't mean that we can't at least try to be friends." She then cast a look at him and once again prodded Naruto, "And it's partly your fault too. You didn't even try to get to know me."

Naruto recoiled once more and cast Ino a dirty look, "Well yeah," He nearly hissed out as the throbbing pain from Hinata's attacks came back to hit him, "Most of the time you were chasing after Sasuke or saying that Sasuke was better than me. Why would I honestly want to be friends with someone who would put me down or chase after a boy that clearly isn't interested in the female sex?"

Oh, bad thing to say. One of the worst things to ever suggest to a Sasuke fangirl was to imply that said target of attraction wasn't at all interested in girls.

Naruto flinched when he suddenly felt the room go cold a couple of degrees. He slowly turned to look at Ino who had a rather dark aura around her, "Eh, Ino?"

"Naruto…" She let out slowly, her voice sounding far too calm for his liking. Especially after what he had just implied about Sasuke.

"Eh, yeah?" The blonde said as he looked around for the nearest exit and eyed it. Ready to make a run for it the moment things went south.

"What did you just say?"

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing!" The blonde said in quick in succession, "Whatever I said about Sasuke was all wrong. Sasuke isn't at all gay. He is a healthy, hot-blooded male who's clearly too nervous to approach you and declare his undying love for you Ino."

Ino took this chance to eye him, look him over for any chance that he might be lying, "...Declare his undying love for me you say?" Naruto rapidly nodded his head, "Oh I thought so. There's no way that Sasuke-kun would be interested in that Forehead." She sighed dreamily as she dropped onto the counter, "Just you wait Sasuke-kun, we'll be together soon enough."

Naruto just looked on with a blank expression on his face before slowly raising his hands and pointing at the door, "Yeah…" He drawled out slowly, "I'm just gonna go now and let you live out whatever fantasies you're clearly going to have." He wasn't going to stick around and hear whatever Ino mutter about whatever she wanted Sasuke to do with her or _to_ her. Hide it as much as they would like, girls were just about as perverted as boys, they didn't just make it so blatantly obvious.

Naruto hopped of the counter and made his way for the door. He hadn't even taken more than five steps before he was stopped once more, "Oi," Ino's voice rang out from behind him. He could honestly feel the grin on her face, "Where do you think you're going Blondie?"

Naruto turned to face Ino, and sure enough, she was grinning, "I was leaving…" He said, as if it was obvious what he was actually doing, "And you know, leave you to your fantasies." He continued before going in for the kill, "Because that's what good friends do."

"Nice try Blondie." Ino said with a smirk on her lips. She pointed at him, then back to the counter, "Come to mama, Blondie."

Naruto just gave her a look, "What would Sasuke think if he heard you call me that? I doubt he would be happy to know that you just said that." He said, still having not moved a single leg back towards the counter where he was being beckoned.

Ino shrugged, "Sasuke knows my heart belongs to him." She pointed to him once more and repeated the gesture, "Come on Blondie, come to mama."

Naruto's eyebrow twitched, "I really wish you would stop calling me that." He said, finally giving in and going back towards the counter, "I don't hear you calling Sasuke by some sort of affectionate nickname." He paused and gave Ino a look, "Is Blondie an affectionate nickname? Please don't let it be an affectionate nickname. I would be happy if it was derisive in nature."

The Yamanaka girl just looked at Naruto, "Yes, well done Naruto. It's a derisive nickname. Now get your ass over here." She finished off as she patted the counter, "Don't make me ask again."

"Urgh." The blonde male of the two groaned as he made the last leg of the journey and retook his previous seat, "So I'm back, what now?"

At this, Ino looked a little lost before finally looking at Naruto bright blue eyes, "Eh, so what's up?"

Naruto just gave her a look. That was the best conversation starter that she could come up with? Oh well, it was better than nothing, "Nothing I guess." And by saying that, he might as well be saying his entire life was nothing more than a bore with nothing of note happening. Well something did happen, he doubted telling Ino that he got his ass handed to him by Hinata would have been good for his cred, "What about you?"

"Way to kill a conversation Naruto." Ino said with a dry look cast his way, "And lucky for you, I just happen to have a lot of things to share with you and that a lot is actually happening in my life since we last saw each other."

'And here we go...' Naruto mentally remarked with an equal sigh of mental defeat as he just realised he had just opened the floodgates with Ino. No doubt he was going to be regaled in various goings on of the gossipy kind that was going on throughout the village, even about people he didn't even know existed.

It sometimes surprised him about the amount of information Ino could get her hands on, even if it was just nothing but gossip. But even then, sometimes, that gossip turned out to be somewhat true, even if that happened like once every blue moon.

So for the next several minutes, Naruto just sat there, staring out of the far window of the shop, idly nodding his head with every single thing Ino said that seemed somewhat relevant or important. He had to even wonder how she had some of the things she was talking about since they were clearly not PG rated.

'Actually,' Naruto thought as he took a look around the rather empty store, 'Where does she hear this stuff?' It certainly wasn't from here. He had been here for quite a few minutes and not a single customer had entered the shop. So her gossip couldn't clearly come from here.

It was then that he noticed that Ino's babbling had come to a halt. Naruto slowly turned his head to face his fellow blonde. Ino looked at him with an indistinguishable look, "Blondie," She started, her tone unreadable, "Were you even listening to a single word I said?"

Naruto's head without his instructions randomly started nodding its head, "Yeah," He said, "Every single word. Interesting stuff. Who knew so and so where having an affair? Absolutely enthralling."

The platinum blonde haired girl just looked at him some more and groaned before shaking her head, her long pony-tail swaying behind her, "Urgh, I should have known."

Seeing that the jig was up, Naruto gave up whatever facade he was playing, "If you want someone to gossip with, why don't you get one of your girlfriends? Or better yet, Sakura?" He asked as he looked at her, "What happened to you guys anyway? Weren't you guys pretty close back in the day?"

Ino looked away from Naruto, "You wouldn't understand."

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Sasuke." Ino's body flinched slightly before letting out a sheepish look comer over her, "That's what I thought." He sighed as he shook his head, "Throwing away your friendship because of a boy. Pretty shallow."

Ino turned to look at him, "Right, what would you know anyway?"

Naruto jumped back to the ground, "Well, I know better than to blow away my friends for something as petty like a boy, and this is strictly if I was a girl of course." Naruto emphasized at the end. Sensing a question or some kind of statement soon to follow from Ino, Naruto continued to speak, "I would have made it work. In some way or form."

Ino looked at Naruto as she took in what he just said before shaking her head, "Wow, that's pretty impressive coming from you Naruto." She propped her elbows onto the counter and rested her chin in her hands, "I was expecting something pretty stupid coming out of your mouth."

Naruto's eyebrow twitched, "I really wish you would stop thinking I was dumb…"

"Then stop acting dumb." Ino rebuked light-heartedly, "I'm surprised hanging around Shikamaru didn't kick the stupid out of you." She then hummed in thought, "But then again, hanging around with Kiba probably didn't help that brain of yours did it. Maybe hanging around Shino and Hinata some more would help out."

Naruto just have her the finger before shaking his head, "Whatever." He muttered, "So how's your team?"

At that, Ino sprawled herself across her counter, arms hanging over the edge on the other side from her, "Argh, I don't want to talk about it."

'Which is girl speak for I want to talk about, but don't you dare ask me about it.' Naruto thought blandly, "Alright then, so I'm going to go now. Nice talking to you Ino." He started making his way towards the door, his back turned, "Been an absolute pleasure Ino. Let's _not_ do this again in the future."

"Hey!" Ino let out as she pointed at him, "You're supposed to ask me about it!"

Like hell he was going to fall for such an obvlious ploy like that.

XxX

(Elsewhere - Konoha)

Shopping for Naruto was rather easy. He never ate in excess of anything, unless it was ramen. So of course, it meant that unlike having to do something like a weekly shopping to restock the supplies in the household, Minato was only limited to a bi-weekly shopping routine.

Which was good for him.

It was rather hard finding spare time in his busy schedule to do parent-y stuff like this. He rather enjoyed doing this sort of things. Made him feel like a proper father, even if he could easily assign this as a D-rank mission for a couple of genins or have someone do it for him, like Kakashi, just to put some life into his normally bland student's life.

But he wouldn't do that. He was a responsible leader and wouldn't abuse his power like that and he was also a responsible parent and thus wouldn't also waive his responsibilities like that.

And it would also make him feel normal, doing such a normal activity like shopping. Also, it would help him see the village he would be willing to protect with his life in its entirety as the villagers went about their business everyday.

"Hokage-sama."

Minato turned his head at someone calling out to him, probably another village just wanting to shoot the breeze or something like that. He didn't mind. Well, he had expected to see a random villager, instead he was met with an old friend instead.

"Mikoto." He greeted with a small smile on his face, "Haven't seen you around lately." Mostly because she was probably busy with clan stuff. She was the matriarch of one of Konoha's most prominent clans of course.

The raven-haired woman returned Minato's greeting smile, "I could say the same about you." She gave him a once over and noticed the bags he was carrying and raised an eyebrow, "Shopping?"

Minato nodded as he lifted the bags up, "Yeah," He said with a nod, "That time of the week again."

Mikoto just looked at him quizzically, "Don't you have people that can do that for you?" Probably paranoid security people that would test the food to make sure it wasn't poisoned or anything like that.

"I do," Minato confirmed with an easy nod of the head, "But where would the fun be in that? I like doing these sort of things."

Mikoto had a look of a smiling cat upon her, "Yeah," She said with a slow, amused nod of the head, "Kushina was the one who wore the pants in your relationship wasn't she?"

Minato just gave her a look, "What?" He let out in surprise. Where did that come from? They were talking about shopping and then it suddenly just jumped to whoever wore the pants in his past relationship at the snap of the hands? Not on his watch, "I don't really see how you could make such an assumption."

Mikoto stifled a giggle, "Well, it's just you."

The blonde ninja just cast a look in Mikoto's direction, "...This wouldn't have anything to do with Kushina's proclamations about me being a 'sissy-boy' would it?" The Uchiha matriarch only brought up her hand and made a maybe motion with it, bringing a half-hearted frown on Minato's face, "I thought so."

Even years after being repeatedly called it by the love of his life, that nickname continued to follow him throughout life. Really, what about him made him look like a sissy boy? He was one of a select few ninja in a group of people that had been given flee upon sight orders by the leaders of other nations. He had essentially been given the image of the devil in Iwa for all accounts and purposes.

'One person's hero is another person's devil.'

What in that general description made him look like a sissy boy? Really, even after all that, Kushina still considered him flaky or sissy in general. Even when he had his serious face on.

"That's going to follow me to my grave." Minato muttered underneath his breath with a shake of the head.

Mikoto couldn't help but shake her lovely head in agreement with him, "Probably, yeah."

Minato cast her a half-hearted glare, "You're not supposed to agree with me." He then decided to take the subject away from his perceived 'sissyness' to another one, which was more sociable, "So how have you been?"

"I've been fine." Mikoto replied with a faint smile on her face, 'Although, everything could be far better.' She looked at Minato, "And you? Naruto hasn't been causing too much trouble now that he's a ninja and all is he?"

Minato laughed lightly, "Quite the opposite actually." He had been expecting various reports of various damages his son had probably done during the short amount of time he was a ninja, but praise to whatever deity that had been looking out for him, his paperwork hadn't even increased during that time, "I think him being a ninja is taking too much of his time to be a general cause of chaos and disorder throughout the village."

Whenever he had been given the chance to see Naruto trudge his way back into their home after his teams' training days, the blonde was mostly haggard and fatigued to the point he would just head up, sleep, come back down to eat something then go back to sleep.

'Note to self; sent Shisui a fruit basket for whatever he's been doing with Naruto.' Minato thought to himself.

"How about Sasuke?" Minato asked as he returned the courtesy.

Mikoto smiled, "Well," She began, "He's trying his best to catch-up to Itachi and impress Fugaku as usual."

"I'm sure he will soon enough," Minato said with a nod of the head, "As sensei always said, the next generation will always surpass the next."

The dark-haired woman gave Minato a look before shaking her head in amusement, "You just sounded like a really old man just by saying that." She then giggled, "Well, you've always been an old person at heart."

Minato just cast her a dry look in return. Was his mature thinking that bad?

XxX

(Yamanaka Flower Shop)

"Again," Naruto said as he looked across him at Ino with a bland look, "Why should I show what I've learnt from my sensei?"

Ino batted her eyelashes at him, "Because you clearly want to show-off all that cool ninja stuff your sensei has taught you so that you could impress little old me?"

Naruto in return, just gave her a look before shaking his head and then stopping, "No." He said in deadpan right to her face, "The hell would I do that?"

A tick mark formed on Ino's head, "Like I said, to impress me you idiot!"

"Again," Naruto said, a little irritation coming into his voice, "Why the hell would I do that?" Ino opened her mouth before Naruto immediately spoke up again, "It better not be this impress you bullshit again."

Ino glared at him before with a snort, looked away rather haughtily, arms crossed and all, "..."

Naruto blinked before squinting at her, "What?" He let out, "Say that again. I didn't hear you." On accounts of her mumbling something out at such a low volume that super-hearing or a goddamn Inuzuka would be able to hear.

After their little conversation and Naruto had decided to make him scarce, Ino had once again stopped him and dragged him to the back of the shop, the back garden to be more precise. Who knew a shop had a back garden? Because he certainly did not know that until just then.

Ino cast a quick look at him, before sighing, "I want you to teach me something so I can get one over Forehead."

"And impress Sasuke I'm sure." Her fellow blonde added with a roll of his rather meticulous bright, blue eyes.

Ino didn't even bother denying it, "Obviously." Because it should have been obvious and it was for everyone that knew her.

Naruto shook his head i wry amusement, "Then why don't you ask your sensei to teach you something?" He asked as he stretched on his seat of crates, "It's why they're there for. To teach you something so that you don't die out there in the big bad world of ninjas. Or better yet, your dad...or someone in your clan." He looked at her, "I'm sure you have a lot of freaky Yamanaka-only jutsu you can learn."

Ino held up a finger, as if she was about to list something of, "One, our sensei is so lazy it's unbelievable. Me and Kiba have to pretty much force him to train us or teach us something." She then lifted up a second finger, "Two; daddy will only teach me when he thinks I'm ready to be taught, whatever that means and three; no-one in my clan is stupid enough to go against daddy." He was the damn clan head and probably had a rule against letting people teach his darling daughter all of the jutsu the clan had in its arsenal.

Naruto nodded his head and took all of that in, but only one thing stood out as far as he was concerned, "...Daddy?" He asked with mirth in his voice and a quirked eyebrow of amusement. He had never in his life, pegged Yamanaka Ino as a daddy's little girl.

Ino just looked at him, "Yes, daddy." She said tersely, eyes narrowed as if challenging him to say something, "So what?" She asked with a dangerous edge to her voice.

Naruto managed to suppress some laughter from himself, but couldn't fully do the same to the smile that had been trying to form on his lips, only coming out as a crooked smile, "Oh nothing, really nothing." He said before quickly trying to change the subject, back to the original subject they were on about, "Yeah, I can't show you any of the things I could do. Us ninjas have to keep our tricks to ourselves you know."

Ino didn't take that as a no though, "Why?" She asked, "We're both Konoha ninjas. Why would you honestly hide your jutsus from me?" It didn't make sense. The more she knew what he was capable of, the better they would be able to work with each other if the call was ever made.

"...Because I might just up and decide to become a missing-nin tomorrow?" Ino just gave him a look, "Yeah, that does sound stupid doesn't it?"

"You have no idea." Someone who had been proclaiming since they were six, probably younger than that they were going to become Hokage suddenly deciding to go rogue? Especially the son of the Hokage? Yeah right, "You have no idea Blondie."

Naruto laughed a little to himself at his failure of an excuse, but he did have a reason why he wouldn't show Ino of his stuff. Simply because it all boiled down to one single reason. She didn't even have enough chakra to pull of some of the tricks he could do.

He had more chakra than his entire class combined, and even then, that still wasn't enough to barely even make a tenth of his reserves, well, that's what he had been told anyway. Apparently, due to the seal his mother had placed on him actively pulling on the Kyuubi's chakra when he started training with it, had significantly up and increased the rate at which slivers of its chakra was added to his own, increasing his own reserves.

Although that meant his control was periodically be screwed or messed up by the seal, that was merely a byproduct that he could deal with if it meant he could be a juggernaut among juggernauts.

All in all, the simple truth was that, if she tried, as she currently was, some of the stuff he could do, she might end up in hospital with chakra exhaustion or worse, dead.

"You're going to have to go to your dad or sensei about this Ino." Naruto finally said with a shake of the head to further try and drive his point, "I'm not showing you anything."

If he thought that had worked, he was clearly mistaken. Ino merely crossed her arms once more, something that Naruto was starting to think was her favourite activity, and gave him a stern look, "You're not leaving until you show me something that I can do."

Oh right, he had forgotten that Ino was rather stubborn with stuff like this. Sort of like him. Kami, he had been right about Ino being him, just with boobs and everything else that compromised being a female, 'A potentially, very hot female, but female nonetheless.' Naruto idly thought to himself, 'But why does she have to be so troublesome?'

Comparing himself between Ino wasn't actually going to solve the matter he had found himself in. He doubted he would be able to just up and leave. Ino had placed herself inbetween him and the way back into the shop which was supposed to be only 'temporarily closed' until she got whatever she wanted out of him.

Of course, he could just take to the rooftops, he was far faster than Ino, so he didn't have to worry about being caught, but that wasn't the problem. It wouldn't stop her from seeking her out, if she was so driven to actually do this.

'Argh, what to do, what to do...' Naruto thought as he idly looked at Ino with a placid expression, taking in her rather striking features, teal pupilless eyes, long blonde hair, nicely developing chest in his own rather humble opinio-long blonde hair...blonde hair...hair.

...Hair.

And with that, he had it. And he showed it with a snap of the fingers, which caught Ino by surprise, "W-What?" She let out, having been startled by the seemingly random act of Naruto snapping his fingers together.

"If I show you something," Naruto began as he got himself of the crates and made his way towards Ino, "Will you let me go?"

Ino looked at him as Naruto closed in on her, "Yeah, it's not like I'm keeping you hostage." Naruto just gave her a deadpan stare as he neared her, causing her to get rather sheepish from the expression, "Okay...maybe I was just a tiny bit." She then noticed that Naruto was standing not too far away from her, like only a couple of centimeters separated the distance between their noses, "Well, Naruto, when I said show me something, I didn't say come and kiss me." She let off with a rather sultry tone to her voice and look on her face. Kami, when did he get so tall? She remembered him being the short runt that always hanged around with Chouji and Kiba.

"Seriously Ino," Naruto began as his hand rose up from his side and neared her face, as if to stroke it before going past her face and onto her back were her ponytail was located and pulling out a strand, "You're not that hot to pull off something like that." He said as he held up a long strand of blonde hair.

The platinum blonde haired girl was about to give him a piece of her mind at what Naruto had said before feeling her hair being plucked out, "Ow!" Ino yelped out in pain before glaring heatedly at Naruto, "You better have a damn good reason for doing that Naruto." You just didn't go and mess with a woman's hair just like that. Especially, _her_ hair. Something she took pride in.

Naruto rolled his eyes, not really caring for any possible punishments that Ino could dish out to him for his little stunt, "I actually do." He said before taking the rather long strand of her between his hands and stretching it out, "Tell me what this is." He asked as he held it up between them.

Ino glared at Naruto, "_My_ hair." She emphasized. She still wasn't at all happy with what had just happened.

"Well, it's just hair, but let's go with that."

Ino's eyebrow twitched in annoyance, just hair? Did he just say just hair? But she doubted if she went on a tanget about her hair, Naruto could have honestly found the effort inside him to care.

So instead, she changed the subject to what Naruto was currently doing with her hair, "What are you doing?" She asked when she noticed that Naruto had placed her hands together before tying them up with the lone strand of hair that he had previously held.

"Tying you up." Came Naruto's simple answer.

Ino raised an eyebrow, "With my hair?" Hair wasn't exactly rope so to say. Sure, in large enough quantities weaved together, it could make for some pretty strong stuff, but on its own? She just wasn't seeing it, "What exactly is this supposed to do?"

"You'll see." Naruto said, finishing up before releasing her hands and looking at Ino, "Alright, separate your hands."

Ino did what was asked of her and easily snapped the thin strand into pieces by just moving her hands apart slightly, "What was that supposed to do?" She asked, not at all impressed about what had just occurred.

"You'll see." Naruto said as he plucked another hair from Ino, this time doing it quickly in case she pulled away.

"Ow! Dammit Naruto!" His platinum haired female friend-ish, cursed at him, "I swear to Kami there better be a damn good reason for this!" That was two now, if he was just doing this to mess with her, she was going to start hurting him, 'If he tries it again, I'm kicking him in the junk.' That seemed like appropriate retribution for her hair.

Once again, Naruto tied up her hands with the lone strand of hair, but this time, he did something different, he channelled some chakra into the strand, "Alright, try to break out of it now."

Ino glared at Naruto, "I don't see how-." She stopped when she noticed she couldn't free her hands. In fact, trying to pull them away caused the hair to dig into her skin, "What?" She let out in surprise, "You gotta be kidding me." She continued as she tried to once again, free her hands only to fail, "What the hell did you do Naruto? There's no way something like this should keep me down. Is this a genjutsu or something?"

"I can't use genjutsu." Naruto freely admitted as he lazily cleaned his ear with his pinky, "You should know that. It's common knowledge." He finished off by blowing on his pinky and shaking it a few times in the air.

"Then why the hell can't I break this stupid strand of hair?" Ino demanded, this was really starting to aggravate her as she continued to strain against the fibre that was created by the human body.

"Chakra." Naruto coolly replied, "I just flowed chakra into it to change some of its properties. One of the basis of the jutsu I know." Naruto explained, "Chakra is amazing." He finished off with a dreamy sigh. The things one could do with it, pity that his control was so shoddy Jiraiya couldn't teach him his Toton Jutsu (Transparency Escape Jutsu) either wise his peeking and ninja game would have gone to a whole new level with that little jutsu under his belt.

So he made this lone strand of hair this strong just by flowing chakra through it?...Wow, that was pretty cool to know. Maybe she could actually use it for herself later on, on something like her hair, she had a lot of it, but first things first, it was having to get her hands free.

Since she couldn't honestly break it, the only other way to go about this now was to ask Naruto...who had just walked off, leaving her to her current predicament, "Hey Blondie!" Ino yelled out after him as he walked off inside.

"What Ino?" Naruto called back from inside the shop.

Ino hurriedly ran back into the shop, looking rather stupid with her hands tied in front of her, "You can't just leave me like this!"

The sound of the shop's door opening could be heard, along with the small bell that alerted to new, potential customers, "Yeah? Did you hear that?" He asked, alluding to the bell, "Yeah, that's me leaving. See ya Ino-bunta-chan!" He finished off as the door smacked shut.

What followed next was Ino's cries out frustration. How was she going to run the shop like this?

"Daddy's going to kill me…"

She was only jesting when she said that, because Inoichi wouldn't kill her. No he wouldn't. Because Ino was Daddy's special little girl.

But that wouldn't stop him from being rather annoyed with her current predicament.

XxX

Minato walked in on his son in the living room idly poking himself at some rather sore looking bruises on his body. He raised an eyebrow, "Did you get in a fight with a Hyuuga?" He asked, alerting his son to his presence.

Naruto turned his head to face his further and merely nodded with a grimace, "Never again." He said as he winced in pain, "That shit hurts."

Minato sighed as he made his way into the overlapping kitchen, "Language." He chided softly, although by now, he had come to grips with the fact that if his son was about to be vocal in something in an excited or irritated manner, he was going to be vocal about it in a potentially crude way.

In return at his father's chiding, Naruto just laughed sheepishly, "I don't see why you even bother." He was probably, always going to curse one way or another.

'I wonder that sometimes.' Minato thought to himself as he placed the shopping bags down and started putting them away, "So was it just any random Hyuuga or was that Hinata-kun?" Although it being Hinata would be rather surprising. The girl was rather demure about the way she acted.

"Hinata." Came the surprising answer from his one and only son.

Minato turned his head to look at his son quizzically, "...How did you get Hinata to do that to you?" He asked as he indicated towards the sore looking bruises on his being.

Naruto looked away with a slight embarrassment flush of rosy pink on his cheeks, "I may, or may not have given the Juuken the lovingly affectionate nickname of the fingerpokes of doom."

Minato just looked at his blonde, look-a-like son before shaking his head, "One of these days, that mouth of yours is going to get you in trouble." He idly commented. He really should have expected this, Naruto was much like his mother, so it was clearly evident that he would also gain her rather...interesting motormouth problem.

Naruto pumped a fist, "Which I will just punch out of!" He declared before bringing his arm back down in a wince. Fuck, why did this shit hurt so much? Couldn't she just have closed off all his tenketsus instead of doing this? He could have dealt with the numbness instead of this utter bollocks.

"Now, now Naruto," A rather lazily sounding voice chimed in, "You can't just punch yourself out of every single problem you find yourself in."

Naruto rolled his eyes as he recognised the owner of the voice, "Well, I can and I will." He defended his philosophy in life rather stubbornly before casting his eyes in the general direction of the newcomer, who coincidentally was just idly perched on the window sill, "You have heard of a door right Kakashi-nii?" He asked the masked ninja, "You know, that big-ass, sometimes wooden thing that normal people use to enter buildings, like, I don't know, homes?"

Kakashi looked up from his book with an eye smile directed in Naruto's direction, "Now where would the fun be in that?" With his real question would be, why would he want to be normal? Being Hatake Kakashi was much more fun.

Naruto just gave his older brother like figure in life a dry look before shaking his head, "So did you come here to talk about dad about super-secret ninja stuff or something?"

"Maybe I just came here to visit my little blonde friend." Kakashi offered as a suggestion, his eyes now back to their usual dry countenance as he read his book.

Naruto snorted in amusement, "You only do that when ero-sennin has been in town to ask me if he's told me anything about any of his new books he's writing."

Kakashi looked up from his book at Naruto before slowly panning his head to face Minato, who was just giving him a look that couldn't choose between being not impressed or simply accepting the statement that had been laid out in front of it.

Kakashi just continued looking at his former teacher and village leader, dry look still present, "I don't really see why you even try anymore. He's already as bad as Jiraiya-sama." He said in defence of himself, "I mean, he doesn't even deny he is one if asked."

Minato accepted the truth of the matter, but that still didn't stop him from trying his damndest of steering his son along a path that wasn't filled with all kinds of debauchery. When his time came, he would at least like to defend himself in front of his now dead wife by pointing out that he at least tried.

"Still doesn't justify it." Minato said evenly, "Stop encouraging him."

Kakashi just looked back down to his book, "You should be saying that to Jiraiya-sama."

Oh, Minato knew, but that was a lost cause as far as he was concerned. The two would just seek each other out whenever Jiraiya was in town just to hang and shoot the fish. The Sannin called it doing his godfather-ly duty, but in truth, it was him simply being able to do something he wasn't able to do with Minato because he was far too mature at that time and had better things to do with his time than peeking on some girls.

The blonde Hokage just sighed, "So what I can help you with today Kakashi?" It certainly wasn't because he was needed somewhere that was for sure. Kakashi wasn't Anbu anymore and even if he was, he wasn't really the sort to be used for something like summonings.

"Oh nothing." The masked jounin finally said as he got himself of the window sill and entered the house fully, "I just thought I should hang around with my two favourite people in the entire village." He finished off, closing the window he had entered behind him.

Naruto and Minato just looked up from their own locations inside the house to look at the masked ninja, "...You just came here for food didn't you?" They asked in unison, both of their tones dry.

"...Was I too obvious?" Kakashi asked in a sheepish manner as he rubbed the back of his head.

Naruto just glared at the masked ninja for stealing his thing before ignoring it completely and getting up from his seat, "Right, I'm going to go take a shower, maybe do something about these bruises because the stupid fox certainly doesn't want to do something about them." He stopped before looking at Kakashi, "Say, do you know any medical ninjutsu?"

Kakashi looked up from his book from a seat he had taken, "Do I look like a medical ninja?" His medical repertoire only extended to the general medical equipment and knowledge ninjas fielded in the field needed.

Naruto shrugged, "You're known as the man of a thousand jutsu." He eyed him with an excited glint in his eyes, "Which you will have to teach me sometime in the future though."

Kakashi waved him off lazily, "Yeah good luck with that." He hadn't been able to get it off him when he was a cute little eight year old, why did he think now that he was a grubby twelve year old that he could finally pull that off? Yeah, good luck to him, he'll need it far more than him.

"Luck? I don't need luck!" Naruto's voice rang out from the hallway, "I'm Namikaze Naruto, the man who will be king!" It rang out as the sound of footsteps could be heard.

Kakashi looked up from his book, "...He does realise that Konoha doesn't operate under a monarchy right?"

Minato was busy away in the kitchen being a dutiful father, "It's sort of like a favourite quote of his after seeing a movie, titled that ages ago." He answered his silver-haired student, "Like when he was a kid, younger."

The jounin merely returned to his book, "Fun."

A comfortable silence went through the house between the two ninjas who are predominantly quiet in their own natures as the sounds of water from a shower could be heard from above and the sounds of cooking started emanating from the joined kitchen in the room beside. Kakashi just idly sitting there, doing nothing but reading his book.

It didn't take long for Naruto to reappear downstairs, his hair wet from his shower and dressed in something suitable for his environment in shorts and a shirt. He took his original seat before eyeing Kakashi with a look, "I have a question, do you actually flip your pages?" He asked as he looked at the book Kakashi was reading.

Kakashi lazily nodded his hands, "I do flip the pages. It would be rather redundant if I didn't." Who read the same page over and over again? That didn't serve any sort of purpose whatsoever.

Naruto didn't seem convinced though, "I've been watching you for a while now, and you haven't flipped a single page." This could only mean two things, Kakashi actually never read his books and just randomly opened them on a single page and then just stayed there or he was an agonizingly slow reader.

"Maybe I like taking my time enjoying each single word, each single sentence, each single chapter, each single page?" The masked ninja drawled out in response before smirking underneath his mask, "Or maybe I flip my pages so quickly that you can't even see me do it."

"Bullshit." Naruto called out at that last testament. He would have been able to notice a change of page, maybe by the sounds it made with each turn, "You're not that fast."

Kakashi just looked up at Naruto with a dry expression, "My sensei ever since I was five years old was your dad...the fastest man in the world," That statement caused Minato to smirk lightly in the kitchen where he toiled away, "...I don't think I have to say anymore." Because what he just said was more than enough to prove the point he was trying to make.

Naruto pointed at himself, "He's been training me since I was four _and_ I'm his son, yet I'm not that fast." And his dad was apparently greased lightning from the day he was born, so it was clearly genetic. Well, probably, he didn't know much about his grandfather on the dad side of the family, or the mom side of the family either, so that was sorta redundant, by the point still stood, "You aren't fooling anyone buddy."

Kakashi eyed Naruto, who returned the look before simply giving up and returning to his book. It was beneath him to argue with little blonde boys. He had far better things to do with his time. Like enjoying this masterful piece of literature in his hands.

Minato's laugh echoed from the kitchen, "Have you forgotten about genjutsu Naruto?" He suggested to his son.

That caused Kakashi to raise his head and turn his head to the side to face the kitchen and give his sensei's back a half-hearted glare.

Naruto's eyes widened, "Son of a-." He immediately brought his hands up into the ram seal to disturb his chakra only to see the book waver ever so slightly. Naruto knew a failed cancellation when he saw one and glared at Kakashi, "How many layers have you got on that?" And how much chakra did Kakashi have to keep a constant stream of chakra to keep the genjutsu active like that?

"Oh, that's for me to know and for you to never find out."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Okay then, so Naruto won't be starting his first C-rank mission this chapter. Definitely next chapter though. This was something of a filler chapter I guess. Well, not really, but it feels like it. I wanted him to meet the wider cast of the Konoha contingent of his generation but got bogged down with the whole Ino part...I don't know why, but I did, don't think too much into it though for all you NaruIno fans. I just thought it was hilarious what I did with it.<strong>

**Anyway, next chapter definitely mission time, and then some other development and other stuff like that after it, by then Naruto should have probably or been made aware of the others in his generation.**

**Oh yeah, someone said something about the stats, I think about comparing Jiraiya and Itachi's stats. I got them off a rather reliable source i.e. the databook, and those were the stats given. But don't take them personally, they're just a base. Gotta admit though, it is rather vague on the whole matter. **

**So taking a page out of a fellow author who pretty much put the whole thing in context about the stats and ratings, it sort of goes like this;**

**10-15 = Little or passing threat. Most of the younger genins won't even crack this little sphere.**

**16-20 = A lot of potential for further growth. These guys will be the ones to go on to make some waves in the world, most likely to become respective heads of their villages too. Probably some of those nameless shinobi with no backgrounds are located somewhere in here.**

**21-25 = They're tough, they know what they're capable off and can handle themselves in a fist-fight or ninja fight, but probably have something wrong to their overall game plan. Probably the vast majority of chunin, along with some special nameless shinobi that are rather tough in their own manner. Can handle anyone below them, unless its a numbers game and someone above them if everything goes to plan or have some very, very good friends willing to put their hats in with them and take on the bigger sharks in the sea.**

**26-30 = Remember those guys in the 21-25 range and about them being tough? Yeah, these guys are the souped up version. You don't fuck around with these guys unless you're willing to get hurt badly. Some extreme levels of dangerous, high level skill and are really, really good at what they do. The Elite if you wish.**

**31-35 = Oh yeah, these guys can probably mess around with a Kage-level ninja and probably come out of that fight very much alive unlike the other guys who would very much come out very, very dead and all other kind of things. Only the guys below them can actually have a hope of not getting all kinds of massacred in a fight, and even then, I think you'd have to be at least at the top tier rate like 27.5 or some shit like that to have promising prospects of walking out of that fight alive, instead of like a 10% survival rate.**

**36-40 = Well, the databooks don't have anyone in this category and I just went and made one myself in Minato's case, but honestly, someone like this is like Madara or Hashirama or Tobirama (Probably Hiruzen in his prime and Itachi if he wasn't so deathly sick) which all in all means that if you got in a fight with someone like this, a simple thought should be going through your mind;- 'what the fuck are you doing?' Simply because really, all you're essentially doing is walking into your fucking funeral. No sane, life loving person would do that. If you came across someone like this, you run for the motherfucking hills. You don't just decide to fight, no, you run for the fucking hills. No ifs, no buts. The fucking hills man, because even then, there's probably a chance you'll get yourself massacred either way if Madara decides to drop a fucking meteor on your ass.**

**P.S.**

**NG is nearly completed and I'm actually dying with SM. I am positively dying on that. I keep running into a wall. I just don't know what to do. At the rate I'm going, I think I'll end up rewriting it with the same premise. I don't think I actually wrote the story all that well, probably the reason why I'm suffering with it as it is.**

**Well, anyways, see ya's later, Raiden out.**

**I like it when I say Raiden out. Makes me feel like some sorta super-secret badass mofo with an equally bad-ass mofo'ing callsign. Gotta love that shit.**

**Raiden. Out.**


	14. Simplicity For Simplicity's Sake

**Shutouts;**

**LoveLifeForever: Minato isn't really one for strength though. He's more of a speed fighter than someone who'll prefer to flat out overpower you. By now, his control is much better than what it was when he first got the Kyuubi placed inside him. It was merely a temporary setback with him.**

**And yes, he can use senjutsu. Apparently, he knew all those years ago...when he was fighting Tobi. If he had actually taken the time to actually zip off, get some nature chakra in him, and then come back to fight Tobi, someone he had shown that he could handle in a fight, he would probably still be alive and kicking.**

**silversnitch4765: It is inadequate, but hey, what you going to do? It's how Kishi made it, and I'm going with it. And anyway, in a ninjutsu match, who would you think would win, Kakashi or Sasuke?**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I do own...nothing though. Broke as all hell. Stupid higher education for putting me into so much debt before I'm even twenty.**

* * *

><p><span><strong>Simplicity For Simplicity's Sake<strong>

It had been a little more than a month and Team 8 was soon finding their rhythm as a group and as a team. Each member of the squad learning what sort of role they were best suited at for the team to work at maximum efficiency.

Shisui had been working them down to the bone to hone in their team dynamics sorted out. Making sure that each of his students knew what sort of role they played in the bigger mechanics of Team 8.

That had been his entire training plan for the first few weeks of the team's formation. And this was achieved by having them constantly come at him during training sessions together. Of course, during their first few training sessions, everything was rather disastrous since they had to get used to working in sync with each other, but soon enough, they started to gel.

And with that gel, their roles clearly became more pronounced.

Naruto's role was a no-brainer, he was the heavy hitter of the team and the one slated to cause the most amount of damage or chaos to give his other two teammates openings and chances to execute their own attacks. He was skilled in taijutsu enough to be someone wary off and if not skilled enough, quite a handful, along with his rather expansive arsenal of jutsu in his pocket.

Shisui could have honestly said that he was rather surprised when Naruto gave him a catalogue of the jutsus he could use. He knew more jutsus than Sasuke and some of those weren't easy on the chakra reserves either. He hadn't at first believed Naruto could pull of any of the jutsus he had written down that he could, but he was soon proven wrong during another one of his training sessions. He just had to wonder how much chakra Naruto had to actually do any of them.

Hinata was a front-line fighter due to her expertise in taijutsu, but unlike Naruto, she wasn't really built for fights of attrition and instead worked to nimbly nip in and out of fights taking down an unsuspecting opponent that wasn't paying attention to their surroundings, and with Naruto as a teammate, it meant it was more than likely that their opponents would have to keep an eye out on him than anything else.

Shino fell into the team's role as the long-range support, his kikaichu allowing him to always keep his enemies guarded encase they found themselves a walking feast for chakra devouring bugs. But just because he stayed in the back didn't mean that Shisui would just leave him be, whenever they trained, he would always press him to help improve his capabilities at close quarters and he was slowly seeing some improvement.

_Thump!_

Naruto crashed into a tree trunk, upside down, making a rather noticeable dent on it before slowly sliding down, landing head first on the ground. He groaned as he felt the pain wreck his body before slowly moving his protesting arms to slowly rise himself of the ground.

It took him a while, but eventually he got it and then proceeded to cast a glare at the person who had caused him to have an impromptu meeting with the tree. Shisui just smiled and waved at him, "You can just stay down Naruto. Like what Hinata and Shino are doing." The jounin said as he indicated towards the exhausted and scuffed up forms of Hinata and Shino, who were busy panting and gasping for air like their lives depended on it, "I can do this all day." Not that he would want to do this all day, no matter how entertaining it was. He had better things to do with his time.

Naruto opened his mouth to speak only to feel something loose in his mouth. He blinked before bringing up a hand and searching around in his mouth before finding a loose tooth and pulled it out with a pained grimace.

He immediately threw it to the ground, it wasn't going to be the first tooth he was going to lose, nor was it going to be the last. And anyways, they always grew back, thanks to his personal, only exclusive to him furry doctor.

'**Fuck you ningen.'**

Anti-social behaviour apart, there were a lot of positives in having the Kyuubi sealed inside you, such as not ever having to worry about walking around with gaps in his mouth from lost teeth. But this wasn't the time to think about various benefits the fox gave him, he had to think about a way to at least get a hit on Shisui.

He wasn't going to wimp out just now. He gave his teacher a rather bloody grin of his own making, "All day? Well, I can do this all week!" He retorted, "Let's see who runs out of juice first!"

Shisui just shook his head at his blonde students eagerness but decided to stop this for now. He had already beat on the blonde more times than his teammates, it wouldn't be good of him to just put him in the hospital after even more beatings.

He didn't want to be the guy known for putting his boss' son into the hospital because he didn't know when to stop, "Yeah, maybe another time Naruto." He indicated towards him to fall in with the rest of his team, "Get over here. I have something to talk to you guys about."

Naruto frowned before he relented and made his way towards the others, albeit rather slowly as he had a limp to his walk, 'I do hope you're working on that.' He thought as he communicated to his imprisoned resident.

He had to wait a while before he got a response though, but just as he had been expecting, it was terse and had no feelings of cordiality to it whatsoever, '**Last time I checked, I wasn't your personal fucking physician.'**

Naruto on the other hand had other ideas as he cast a mental grin towards the always irritable fox, 'But I always end up good as new because of you healing more. So you sorta are.' The blonde finished off, holding the last of his words.

'**Only because I don't have a choice in the matter.**' The healing was completely and utterly involuntary. It was something his annoying host gained from simply housing his rather magnificent being in his body.

…Fucking Hashirama and his redheaded bimbo wife for screwing him over all those years ago. The only thing better than eating him right now would have been if he was around now to see the products of his little idea of passing of its brethren to the other villages. Because that little idea worked out just _magnificently_ to keep world peace.

Naruto didn't really have a comment for the last part and thus, just merely closed their connection to leave the fox to his own musings. Good thing to since he had soon arrived where the others were currently sat or, more accurately, lying down as they regained their strength from their rather brutal ass-kicking that had become the norm whenever it came to team training sessions.

Shisui looked over his genin, small even smile on his face that was the norm with him in situations like this, "Well, I have to say," He began, getting the attention of the genin, "You guys are certainly getting better and better each time when it comes to working with each other. I don't think I saw you guys even communicate with each other throughout the whole thing. Do you guys meet up or something to plan up strategies and tactics against me or something?"

The genin slowly and painfully looked at each other, wondering whether they should tell him that they were just making shit up on the fly, but just to put an ease on the man's consciousness, they decided to just flat out lie to him.

And Naruto was more than willing to step up and be the one to do it, "Yeah," The blonde began, "I thought it would be something awesome for us to do, so every now and then, I round up Shino and Hinata and then plan everything thoroughly in hopes we actually get you one of these days." And because he had stepped up, he was also willing to embellish the story to the point that it made him seem like a bloody genius for coming up with this in the first place.

Shisui nodded his head as he took all of this in, "Yeah Naruto?" The blonde looked at his teacher expectantly, 'He must probably think I'm going to praise him.', "I'm not that stupid. You guys came up with all of that stuff on the fly didn't you?" He said, silently enjoying to himself the defeated look on Naruto's face.

Shino nodded his head in confirmation, "Yes sensei. That was all tactics we developed as we continued fighting you."

The unruly haired Uchiha merely grinned widely at what he was hearing, "Oh that's brilliant. I'm an awesome teacher." He began, his grin still on his face, "My plan to periodically kick your asses has somehow managed to make sure you guys sync up to the point you don't even have to plan any official team strategies or anything. I'm awesome. Pure undulated awesome."

His grin then dropped after another moment to look at each one of his genin, "But seriously, you guys need to come up with some strategies. Making things up on the fly is good and all, but you need to also have some predetermined strategies." He crossed his arms and gave them each the sternest look he could muster, "Alright, homework for you guys, you wanna guess what it is?"

The Hyuuga in the group slowly raised her hand, "Come up with team strategies for the next time we meet?" She said hopefully.

Shisui grinned as he nodded his head, "Yeah, exactly that. I want some strategies from my cute little genin."

Naruto stretched out his body as he could feel the soreness slowly leave him, "We're meeting again tomorrow, you seriously can't expect us to come up with something in the next few hours for tomorrow can you?"

"You have a...point there Naruto. Wow, I didn't think I would actually admit to something like that anytime so soon." Naruto's eyebrow twitched at the somewhat backhanded comment from his sensei, but managed to reign himself in. He didn't feel like getting his ass kicked so soon after his body finally started healing itself, "But anyway, I'll give you a month. That's more than enough time. And anyway, I think after everything I've seen today, I think you're more than ready."

The three genin raised eyebrow in curiosity, "Ready for what exactly sensei?" The soft-spoken Hinata asked.

"For your first C-rank mission of course."

Shisui had expected Naruto to burst out in some sort of yelling at that declaration, but instead, he was met by silence. Did he say something wrong? Why wasn't the most energetic of his genin not praising the heavens for what's about to happen? Just what the hell was going on he-.

"FINALLY!"

Ahh, there we go, everything was alright in the universe once more.

Naruto immediately sprang to his feet, his body suddenly healed from its aches and bruises, "About damn time dammit. I was wondering how many D-ranks we were going to do before you decided we were ready to move up the ladder."

Shino agreed as he pushed up his glasses, "I was also curious as to when we could proceed to the next level of missions."

Hinata didn't join in with her teammates voicing their opinions that they were ready for the next level of missions. Simply because she didn't think that she was ready, even if she felt that she had gotten stronger over the past month and a bit with Shisui's training. But she couldn't help but feel a pang of excitement at the prospect of such a mission.

"Well, I was just waiting until I thought you guys were ready." Shisui informed them, "Now I think you're ready." He looked up to the sky, "But since its rather late and you guys need to rest, I'll give you guys the weekend off and then we'll meet on monday at the Academy at 9AM sharp." He then eyed Naruto, "Repeat after me Naruto, 9AM sharp. If you're late, I'm making you carry everyone's packs."

Naruto's eyebrow twitched as he stared dryly at his sensei, "Come on, I haven't even been that late! At best, like a couple of minutes or something."

"A-Actually, you have an average of being five minutes late Naruto-kun." Hinata informed him, the pale-eyed helpful angel that she was.

Naruto looked at her, was he supposed to be happy about that? And how did she know his average anyway? Who had the time to actually take note of something like that anyway? Hyuuga Hinata by the looks of it. Probably Shino did too, he looked like that sorta guy.

"...Thanks Hinata." Naruto said after a while. At least it wasn't something stupid like Kakashi and his two to three hours bullshit he always stuck to. What did the man do anyway? He certainly didn't spend that time getting some extra z's in his apartment.

Shisui shook his head in amusement, "Yeah, as I was saying, 9AM sharp, Academy. Be there or miss out...which means your team will miss out, thus giving them reason to take out their anger on missing out on a C-rank and be dunked back down to D-ranks for however long I feel."

Hinata and Shino's heads slowly panned towards Naruto. The blonde noticed the eyes on him and stared at his teammates incredulously, "Oh come on guys, seriously? I won't be late dammit!"

"Just to be safe," Shino said as he began to speak, "We should probably go and fetch him together in the morning Hinata."

Hinata nodded her head in agreement, "I-I think that's a great idea Shino-kun."

Naruto's shoulders' slumped in defeat, "You guys suck."

Shisui smirked in amusement at the scene, "They only care Naruto," The jounin remarked with mirth evident in his voice, "They only care."

XxX

(Jounin Lounge)

"Yo Shisui," Kakashi greeted casually as he walked towards the younger ninja, "Mind if I take a seat?"

Shisui indicated towards the seat with a hand, "Please, go ahead, it's a free seat anyway."

Kakashi gladly took the seat after getting permission...even though he was going to take the seat either way without permission. The lazy looking jounin noted several scrolls that Shisui was currently looking over, "C-rank?" He asked with a raised eyebrow of interest, "Isn't it a bit early for that?" He had only had his team for a little over a month. Not really long enough in his opinion for any rookie teams to move on to the next level of missions.

Shisui let out an amused laugh, "Not really. My kids can handle it." He looked up from the scrolls in shock, 'Wow, can't believe I just said that.' He thought before going back to his scrolls, "It's not like there's a regulation time limit on these sort of things actually."

Kakashi nodded his head in agreement, "Yeah, but there's an unwritten rule stating that it has to be at least two months though."

"Unwritten rules aren't meant to be followed." A new voice, equally lazy sounding like Kakashi's said as a chair was slid out around the table, "Let Shisui do what he wants Kakashi. If he thinks his kids are ready, they're ready." And anyway, even if things went south, they had Shunshin no Shisui for a sensei. He was strong enough to handle anything thrown his way.

"Ah," Kakashi let out with a nod, "But Asuma, they're still sort of rules."

Asuma smirked as he looked at his fellow jounin, "That aren't actually enforced or anything. You're just jealous that Shisui get's to baptise his kids first rather than yours."

"Me? Jealous?" Kakashi drawled, he had yet to actually look up from the ever present book that was always in his hands, "You must be joking Asuma. Clearly you're the one who's smarting over not baptizing your kids with their first C-rank."

Shisui looked up to his seniors with an amused look, "You realise this isn't some sort of contest right?" He pointed out, voiced laced with various tones of mirth.

Kakashi and Asuma looked at each other slowly before going back to Shisui, "Well…" They both drawled out, "It kinda is…" The silver-haired of the two finished off.

The Uchiha on the table sweatdropped at that before shaking his head, "Yeah, sure, whatever." He decided to change the subject, but didn't actually change the subject as well as he hoped, "So how are your teams then?"

Once again, Kakashi and Asuma looked at each other before shrugging at the same time, "Could be worse." They both said in unison, their tones showing that they didn't really seem to care much about the subject, "Mine aren't really ready for a C-rank." Asuma said with a sigh, "Might take sometime before they're ready. But we'll get there." He gave a lazy glare at Shisui, "You got lucky and got all the good ones."

"I didn't get all the good ones." Shisui said in defence of his team. His team wasn't filled with the good ones, but at least two thirds of them were easy to handle.

"You got the Aburame, everyone knows how Aburame's are," Kakashi chimed in as he began to list things of, "Then you got the cute, little Hyuuga heiress and then you got the Hokage's son. So yeah, you got lucky."

Shisui raised an eyebrow, "You _have_ met Naruto right?"

"Yep." Both jounins confirmed, "Still wouldn't mind the runt on my team though." Asuma finished off.

"I don't think he would appreciate it with you calling him a runt…"

"Well, he's sort of smaller than me, thus he is a runt."

"He's twelve."

"Don't give him excuses."

Shisui just shook his head in amusement before turning back to his scrolls. He had to find the right mission for his team. After all, their first mission had to be something that they could remember.

XxX

(Naruto's Home - Later That Evening)

The first thing that Minato had noticed when he came back to his home was the rather proud look Naruto had on his face. He seemed to have a look that was stuck between being rather impressed with himself and also dying to tell him something. The fact that he could barely sit still in his seat was more than evidence enough.

Father and son just looked at each, seemingly having a battle to see who's going to break first. It had been a battle Naruto was slated to lose, he had never been one much for patience when he was excited, and he _was_ really excited about this, so he just decided to let the cat out of the bag.

Minato saw Naruto's mouth twitch as he moved it, and a mental smile of victory flashed through his mind. Damn, when he wanted to, he had one killer pokerface.

"Hey dad," Naruto said quickly and brightly.

"Yes Naruto," The older of the two blondes spoke calmly, "What is it? What's got you all excited?"

Naruto grinned at his old man, "If I told you outright, where would the fun be in that?" He teased as his grin turned into a cheshire-like smile, "You're going to have to guess."

"I have to guess?" Minato repeated as he looked on at his son, "I don't think that would work. I don't even know what I have to guess about." Knowing the rather excitable nature of his son, there could be literally hundreds of things that would have got him all excited as he was. Thus there was no point in trying to guess, it could take hours or days and he still didn't think he would have been able to guess what exactly is it that's the cause for this excitement.

Naruto just gave his father a look, "Well, you have a point there." The bond freely admitted before jumping out of his seat, "Shisui-sensei is taking us out for our first C-rank mission!"

The older blonde of the family blinked, "Really? Your team must have been impressed him if he's taking you on a C-rank so soon." The tone of his voice had some elements of pride in it. Why shouldn't he? It had been little over a month and he was going for his first C-rank? That was something to be damn proud about. If Kushina had been here, she would have probably gone round to all her old friends or better yet the roof of the Kage Tower and yelled from the top of her lungs until someone was brave enough to bring her down from her high.

Naruto crossed his arms with something of a haughty look on his face, "Dad, Team 8 is the best." There was no ifs, no buts, it simply was. The main reason because he was there and his sheer presence was enough to warranty it being called the best.

Minato chuckled at Naruto's declaration, probably that ego-problem of his being the main reason for that line of thought. Nonetheless though, a small proud smile came across his lips as he ruffled his son's hair, "So shouldn't you go prepare for it?"

Naruto childishly swatted away the hand that was messing up his hair, "Doing it tomorrow. We don't have to report for it until monday."

Minato nodded, "Want me to help you with it?" He trusted and had utter faith in Naruto, but it was more than likely that the blond would overpack his supplies, actually, speaking of which, "Do you know how long your mission is going to take?" He asked as he looked at Naruto.

Naruto blinked before shaking his head, "Not really. He just told us to show up at the Admin building first thing in the morning." He admitted with a nonchalant shrug, "I guess he's going to give us time to get ourselves set up before we go."

Well, Shisui wasn't at fault for that. That was the standard for missions in many ninja villages. You went and got your mission and before you departed, you went and supplied yourselves with the necessary supplies of the mission.

Naruto looked up at his father, "So…" He began innocently enough, getting Minato's attention. Something was up, Naruto never tried to play the innocent game if he could help it, "Can I have some money for the supplies?" He asked with as pleading a look as he could muster.

Minato just looked at his son with a dry look. Really? Was that how Naruto was going to play it? "Do you really think that would work?"

Naruto shrugged, "Can't help a guy for trying to get some extra money can you?" He said with a rather flippant nature, hands locked behind his head.

The blue-eyed Hokage of currently the reigning ninja super-power in the world couldn't help but sort of agree with that statement, "Guess not."

XxX

Kakashi was still rather indifferent to this whole jounin-sensei business. As far as he was concerned, it was just a gig that resulted in him babysitting three brats of various abilities whilst showing them a couple of tricks so that in the future, when they're finally on their own, they didn't end up being small, bratty parts of dead brats.

And even with that knowledge, he couldn't really bring himself to actually be active in their training. He would just come up with an exercise out of the top of his head and tell it to the kids and be done with it. Sometimes, if he was feeling like it, he would have a wee bit of a spar with them...which was mostly him running circles around them and making them question their entire worth as human beings, or ninjas, whichever was preferred.

Now to a casual observer, this method of teaching, especially with the life that persons like him lived, would cause many to look at him in shock at his utter carelessness. But honestly, what could he do about it?

Two of his genins had clan training to fall back on, and apparently they were receiving that training to. They were showing gradual improvement in their skills as ninjas, the other one? Well, he still didn't really know what to do about the last of his three genin spell. Apart from her rather sizeable intelligence, she didn't have anything else going for her.

How did she become Kunoichi of the Year again? Standards must have dropped from his time at the Academy. Which meant more work for him, brilliant.

Well, the good thing that he could take out of this was that his exercises, as lame or ridiculous as they seemed, seemed to work one way or another. The three genin that compromised of his team were showing signs of improvement. Well, two of them anyway, he was still unsure about the third one, that was still a work in progress.

He already had an idea of how they worked from casual observation and training them, training in the loosest sense of the word. The apparent genius was obviously the most talented of the group, then again he was an Uchiha, nothing surprising about that. He seemed to have a grasps on all the facets that was deemed necessary to be a ninja; his ninjutsu was good, so was his taijutsu and genjutsu and all those three would be boosted the day he awakened his clans' birthright...well, if he managed to anyway. All in all, he was well on his way to being probably one of the most rounded ninja around, and with his clan training, Kakashi didn't really need to spend much time teaching him anything.

The second among the group, someone who actually put to shame his own laziness, was skilled in his own manner. He was intelligent, more so than his female teammate and had quickly been set-up as the team strategist and tactician because of that intelligence. He knew what he was good at and what he was also bad at, so as far as he was concerned, there was no point in teaching him any new tricks. A bit specialized for his liking, but he doubted he would be able to convince him to branch out...and he didn't feel like it anyway.

And lastly, the sole kunoichi of the team. Once more, how she was Kunoichi of the Year still puzzled the hell out of him. Standards couldn't have been that bad could they? Most of the time, she was too busy admiring the Uchiha (A worrying note was that her hearts sometimes took the shape of hearts...even back in his younger days when he had fangirls of his own, none exhibited that phenomenon) and he was in doubt that she did any extra training out from her team days. Sure, he didn't expect her to thoroughly train like her apparent crush, but at least he hoped that she did _some _training. Just something. It spoke volumes if the laziest person on the team himself trained and said ninja had tried to subtly get her moving to no apparent success.

And thus Kakashi was still at something of a loss at what to train her in. From what he knew from observation and her file, she was intelligent, good to know, and had excellent chakra control, but then again, who wouldn't with low chakra reserves?

Anyway, those two things meant that she was an excellent choice to either set her up to become a medic-nin or a genjutsu practitioner. He wasn't friends with many people who were knowledgeable in the medical field, so he was probably going to have to give her a start on the genjutsu field.

He knew a fair few of that subtle part of the ninja game, even though most were ocular in definition due to his special eye. But that wouldn't stop him, he just had to think of a right time to broach the subject.

Once again, why oh why did he give up his illustrious career as a member of ANBU to take up this post again? Ah yes, because one of the greatest men he ever knew and respected asked him too. Sometimes, loyalty was a bitch.

And on that note, "What can I help you with Naruto?" Kakashi asked from his position, sitting atop a tree branch overlooking the field his genin were currently training in. Two were training, the other was sleeping in the shade of a tree.

He heard some mild cursing before Naruto made himself visible to Team 7 as he moved out of his hiding place, "I thought I had you then." The teenage blonde grumbled, hands in his pockets and everything else.

It was sort of amusing that Naruto thought he could gain the drop on him, Hatake Kakashi. He was a couple of centuries to early for ever getting the chance to drop on him, "There's always next time." And even then, success wasn't likely, "So what do we owe the pleasure for this little visit? If you came here to visit me, I'm flattered. But as you can see, I'm rather busy at the moment."

"You don't look busy." Naruto deadpanned as he looked up at the silver haired ninjas location, idly sitting there without a care in the world, "And anyway, I didn't come to see you."

Sasuke took that chance to speak up then, "So why are you here then? Can't you see that some of us are training?" If it hadn't been stated before, he was using that word in the loosest sense imagined. The look that Naruto had on his face as he turned to face Sasuke put the Uchiha on guard. He knew that look, nothing good ever came from that look, "...What?"

Naruto had the look of a cheshire cat as he linked his hands behind his head, "Oh nothing much. I actually came all the way out here to visit you." He said idly, "You know, to catch up and everything. I mean, we haven't spoke in like a month."

"...You came all the way here to catch-up with me?" The entire situation seemed ludicrous to the extreme. Naruto just didn't come and find him for a social call. Whenever he did, it was always to mess with him in some form or way.

Even Sakura found that too strange to not comment on, "What are you planning to do Naruto?" She knew very well that one of the blonde's favoured pastimes was messing with people. One of his favourites being messing with Sasuke.

Naruto would have felt offended that everyone seemed to think that he had some sort of hidden agenda with this sudden social call. Hell, he could feel Kakashi's lazy gaze lingering on him from above. Actually, what was Shikamaru doing?

A quick turn of the head in Shikamaru's direction answered everything and he didn't really know how to feel about that. On one hand, he should have expected his best friend to just plainly ignore everything around him, and the other being that he should at least have gotten his attention by his sheer presence here.

"I'm going to do nothing." Naruto admitted as he put his hands in his pockets, "I rather feel offended that you would think something is up. Really, I just came to check-up with Sasuke here."

Sasuke gave him an apprehensive look over, "Then catch-up with me then." He couldn't believe that he had just said that, but the sooner this was over with, the sooner he could go back to the mind-numbing activities that Kakashi's mind drudged up. Actually, now that he was thinking about it, which was worse, Naruto or Kakashi's 'training'?

The fact that he couldn't come up with an answer on the spot spoke volumes to how little he actually thought of both things.

Naruto's grin just outright turned wicked, "Well, I just thought I should come tell you that on monday I'm going on a mission."

Kakashi lowered his book and turned his head to look down at Naruto, hoping against all hope that Naruto wasn't going to do what he thought he was going to do. He just knew the effects were going to be nothing but troublesome for him, and Shikamaru too.

Sasuke just gave him a blank look. He had been expecting more. What the hell was that supposed to do? It didn't even rev him up in any sort of manner. He was honestly disappointed.

Sakura huffed as she put her hands on her hips, "I don't get it Naruto." She began, "What was so important that you had to come here to tell Sasuke-kun that?"

Naruto just shrugged as flippantly as he could, "I don't know really. I mean, I came to tell you because, well, I figured you'd want to know about me going on a _C-rank _mission." Oh yeah, that definitely got their attention, "I thought it would be something to share with my classmates. What, with it being a _C-rank_ mission." He stressed again, the grin on his face could have made a Cheshire cat proud.

Kakashi could immediately feel Sasuke's gaze upon him. Hmm, what was Minato's policy when it came to training Naruto again? He couldn't remember if psychological and physical trauma were on the table or not. He would have to check it out at a later date or better yet, when he was inflicting those traumas.

Naruto turned to leave, "Well I'm done. It was a pleasure catching up with you like this Sasuke. We should do it again sometime. I think we've grown even closer." He waved in Shikamaru's direction, "By Shika, don't nap too much now. Later Sakura." He finished off as he disappeared into the surrounding foliage, on his way back to the village.

Sasuke just stood there, an even look on his face as he stared a hole into Kakashi. The jounin just waved at him, "Now, now Sasuke. You'll eventually get to have your first C-rank soon enough."

The dark-haired boy merely narrowed his eyes before taking that as Kakashi's word on the matter. He just let out a grunt and then returned to the exercise that he and Sakura had been previously doing, with renewed vigour courtesy of one Namikaze Naruto.

XxX

A giant grin was plastered onto Naruto's face as he made his way back to the village. The look on Sasuke's face when he had dropped news of his first C-rank was just absolutely brilliant as far as he was concerned. The only problem he could think of was that he didn't bring a camera of some kind to make that sight truly immortal.

It was at times like this he wished he had photographic memory, and excellent drawing skills. He could have create a masterpiece from that single image alone, for his own merry viewing off course, and maybe for anyone who was interested.

Now that his primary objective of the day had been met, what was he going to do for the rest of the day?

His dad had told him not to train himself into a stupor like he usually did. Something about not wanting him to injure himself during the time before a mission. He guessed he could do some light training, but light training just wasn't his thing.

So what to do? Visit his friends and see if they could hang? He definitely knew Kiba would be utterly _ecstatic _to know that he was going on his first C-rank. But he wasn't aware of where his team trained and couldn't really have the energy or need to go look for him. He would have to tell him after the deed was done.

With that train of thought, he stepped out onto one of the many training fields he had passed on his way towards Kakashi's training ground.

"YOUTH!"

Naruto stopped, youth? Who did he know that was disturbing and deranged enough to shout that out so loudly at any time of the day?

With a sense of increasing trepidation, he slowly but surely turned his head in the direction of the voice. He immediately wished he hadn't and began to back away into the surrounding foliage as quickly as he could.

'You didn't see me, you didn't see me, you didn't see me.' The young blonde repeated in his head like a mantra, taking each step with as much stealth as he could.

"OH! IT'S NARUTO!"

Naruto immediately snapped his head to the foliage, maybe he didn't see him, but another Naruto instead. He could just easily dive into that and crawl away and put this away as nothing more than a bad dream. Yeah, he could do that.

Yeah, that was the plan until a rather strong hand placed itself onto his shoulder, "Naruto!" A booming voice yelled out, getting the young blonde to yelp slightly in surprise, "It's been so long since I last saw!" It couldn't be for a lack of trying on Naruto's part, "How have you been my eternal rivals' disciple?"

Having given up on escaping, Naruto silently accepted himself into whatever mess he had gotten himself in. He merely shrugged, "Oh nothing much, this and that." The blonde muttered before moving out of the hand, "And I'm not Kakashi's disciple." Yes, Kakashi had trained him back when he was young, but that didn't mean he was his disciple. It was something completely different instead. Jiraiya was probably the only person around who could claim that Naruto was his disciple, "So how have things been Gai-sensei?"

Gai cast a glistening grin in Naruto's direction, "Oh things have been utterly youthful!" The muscled, green spandex wearing, black bowl cut and thick eyebrows man declared. He then pointed to the other side of the field, "In fact, I even have a disciple of my own."

A disciple? That had gotten Naruto's attention. He just had to take a look on the unfortunate person who ever became Gai's disciple.

He followed the hand and saw that Gai was pointing towards three youths, who were curiously looking right back at him. Oh yeah, he did remember Kakashi saying something about Gai being a sensei or something a while back.

The unfortunate youths in Gai's team consisted of a girl and two boys. The girl somewhat reminded him of a panda, he didn't know why, but she did. She had brown hair styled into two buns, wore a pink sleeveless Chinese top and dark green pants and wore her forehead around her forehead. One of the boys had long dark hair, kept in check by his forehead that had tassels attached and wore a khaki shirt, dark brown shorts and had bandages around his right arm and left leg.

'Yep, he's a Hyuuga.' Even from this distance, he could feel the arrogance. Even though the tale tell signs of him being a Hyuuga was his skin tone and pale lavender coloured eyes.

The last of the boys had caused Naruto to stop, blink and pinch himself. There was just no way what he had been seeing was real, not in the slightest. So it had only been natural to assume that it was a genjutsu. So he pinched himself, hard. The genjutsu didn't work, so it was real.

Naruto just turned to look at the still beaming Gai with a look of horror on his face, "What did you do?" He breathed out, "Did you clone yourself or something?" Because that was the only thing that could explain why for all intents and purposes, there was a miniature Gai standing with the other two genins in Gai's team. He refused to believe someone had gone and procreated with Gai of all people. He meant well, but was far too full-on, so to speak.

The boy had the entire set, green spandex body suit, the black hair cut into a bowl style, even the whole headband around the waist thing Gai did.

Gai looked down at Naruto with a confused expression, "What ever do you mean Naruto?"

The fact that Gai was genuinely confused just hammered in what Naruto had been refusing to believe. This was an actual person dressed up in the same manner as Gai of all people. He had to give kudos to the guy for walking around in public the way he did.

Before he could even blink, Naruto found himself standing in front of Gai's team, said jounin having carried him all the way back to them. Gai patted Naruto's head, "You must all be wondering who this youthful young man is my delightful genin," By the looks of it, only one of them had been wondering who he was and that was the Gai-clone. The other two seemed to already know who he was, "This here happens to be Naruto. He happened to have trained underneath my eternal rival back when he was young."

Naruto had his eyes firmly cast on one person, "Blink twice if you're dressed like that against your will." He asked as he eyed the miniature Gai clone. Apparently, what he had said caused the girl to let out a laugh of amusement. He turned to look at her, "What?"

She waved him off, "Oh nothing. You'll find out soon enough." She said in between giggles.

Naruto just stared at her for a couple more moments before turning away, "Okay then…" He had to suppress a shriek of unmanly fear when miniature Gai suddenly appeared in front of him, "Sweet mother…!"

"Hello there, I am Rock Lee! Faithful disciple to Gai-sensei!" The clone greeted himself rather exuberantly. Far too exuberant for Naruto's liking.

"Hi there…" Naruto greeted back. He could already have the feeling that this person had freely put themselves into this predicament, "Naruto, what's up?"

Rock Lee eyed him before punching the air, fire burning in his eyes, literally, "Yosh! From your headband I can see you're a ninja. I hope you don't mind having a friendly spar with me?"

Naruto opened his mouth to speak. He didn't get round to that as Gai spoke up, "Oh that is an excellent idea Lee! I shall be the referee for this match! I shall make this a challenge to Kakashi to see who has the better disciple!"

"Once more," Naruto began, "Not his disciple." He then thought about it before shrugging, "Fine, alright. Spar it is then. So what are the rules?"

Gai thought about it for a brief moment before speaking again, "No debilitating hits, only fight to capture. You can use everything in your arsenal and when I call the match, the match is over."

"Alright." Naruto said with a nod of the head as he walked towards one end of the field, "Let's get this on." He said as he faced Lee, who had eagerly rushed towards the other side of the field and had already set himself up, one hand in front and the other behind him.

He noted that the other two genin now had their attentions firmly on the fight that was about to begin.

Gai stepped up and looked at both contestants to see if they were ready. He nodded to himself, "Begin."

Now Naruto knew that he was fast and that very few people his age could rival him when it came to speed. Kiba and Sasuke being some to name a few, but honestly? If it wasn't for the fact that they were attached to his head, his eyebrows would have gone flying off his head at the speed Lee crossed the distance between them.

He doubted he, Sasuke or Kiba could cross the fifty or so yards between them in such a time.

It was just by pure instinct and years of being the punch bag of people who could move faster than he could trace that saved him from having to suffer a punch to the face. And the fact that he could feel the power from the punch told him that it would have hurt like a bitch if it had connected.

Quickly getting over his initial surprise, Naruto lashed out with a punch to the abdomen. He had expected the punch to have at least hit, this Lee guy was still extended into his whole punching motion. But he was apparently quick enough to deftly dodge out of the way.

Not without missing a bit, he came at Naruto again with a low kick, aiming to sweep Naruto of his feet, "Konoha Reppu (Leaf Whirlwind)!"

Naruto was swept off his feet but quickly with some show skill managed to twist himself into a handstand posture before he began spinning himself around and began to launch his own kicking attacks against the dark-haired boy.

Lee moved away from the impromptu barrage of kicks by leaping away. He landed a few yards away from Naruto with something of a smirk on his lips, "You're really good!"

Naruto flipped himself to stand onto his own two feet, his head slightly spinning from the spinning he had subjected himself too, "Ah thanks I guess. You're really good yourself." And he meant it. He doubted he would be able to win this and Lee looked like he knew what he was doing. Naruto knew what he was doing, but there was something about Lee that told him that even if he won, it wasn't going to be nice at all.

Lee let out a laugh, "Why thank you. I pride myself as a taijutsu fighter!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "What about genjutsu or ninjutsu?" They were important weren't they? Even though Gai was probably the best damned taijutsu fighter in the village, Naruto knew he had a repertoire of genjutsu and ninjutsu in his arsenal.

"I have absolutely no talent in ninjutsu or genjutsu."

Well...that was certainly very open with that admission. So open Naruto really couldn't believe it, "Really? Are you just saying that to make me feel better?"

Lee cocked his head to the side in confusion, "I don't understand. How is telling you that I have no talent in nin- or genjutsu supposed to make you feel better?"

Naruto just looked at him before shrugging and deciding the time for the banter was over and done with. It was now time to get back to the fight that was currently occurring.

Since anything was allowed in this fight, Naruto decided that since Lee outclassed him then and there when it came to taijutsu, it was probably best to stick with some range. And thus, he went through hand seals, "Katon: Housenka no Jutsu (Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Flower Technique)!"

Lee got on his proverbial bike as he started weaving, ducking and dodging his way through a volley of medium-sized fireballs that were sent his way. None of them hit as he was more than agile enough to dodge them without getting hit and the speed at which the fireballs travelled wasn't fast enough to be of a worry to him.

At the first chance he got, he immediately rushed towards Naruto to meet him once more in close combat. Naruto saw his approach and tried to cut him off with the last wave of fireballs. Lee took to the air to avoid the fireballs before spinning and tried to come down on Naruto with an axe kick.

Naruto leapt back to avoid the axe kick and good thing too. His eyes widened when he saw the results Lee's kick had on the ground and he definitely knew that would have broken some bones if it had landed.

Once more, Lee showed his expertise in his chosen specialisation when he managed to roll himself from the axe kick to immediately close the distance with Naruto and quickly engage Naruto once more in furious hand to hand combat.

Something that Naruto was losing in badly. Lee punished him for any mistake he made whenever they clashed. Hell, most of the time, he was on the defensive, he only had time to launch retaliatory attacks whenever it seemed like Lee had over-stretched himself with one of his attacks. Which was few and far in between.

'This sucks.' Naruto thought as he felt a particularly powerful punch to the head. He managed to get his senses back in order and out of reflex managed to gain a hold of Lee's bandaged hands. A malicious grin came across Naruto's face, 'Payback time bitch.'

Naruto yanked on the arm to pull Lee in before bringing his head to connect with Lee's. He didn't really know if his headbutt had worked or not because Lee didn't seem to register it. In fact, it seemed more like he had hurt himself more than Lee.

"Seriously?" Naruto deadpanned as he looked straight into Lee's eyes due to the close proximity of their heads, "Nothing?"

"That was a powerful headbutt Naruto-kun." Lee admitted, "But I train myself to have the strongest body I can have."

"Of course you do." Naruto mumbled to himself before moving his head away, jumped up, tucked his legs in and unleashed a furious donkey kick onto Lee's chest that send him flying, "That had to hurt!" The blonde declared as he landed on the ground.

If Lee felt the vicious double-kick into his chest, he didn't show it as he immediately got himself back-up and came at Naruto once more. This time, he seemed to have been moving faster than he had before, if that was even possible.

He launched himself at Naruto with a leg outstretched, "Dynamic Entry!"

Naruto quickly brought his hands together to block the incoming flying kick, and he had to grit his teeth as he felt some bones creak underneath the force of the kick as he slid backwards. Having managed to stay on his feet and not get sent flying, he quickly grasped onto Lee's outstretched leg and with a quick turning motion, threw him into the nearest tree he could aim at.

The sound of Lee's body hitting the wood was the most satisfying sound that Naruto had ever heard at this moment in time. And yet the older boy still got up, without even showing signs that he had been thrown into a tree.

Just what the hell was he made out of?

"Alright that's enough." Gai announced from the sidelines, much to Naruto's relief. He could taste blood in his mouth and if this had continued, things could have gone out of hand and he would have probably ended up checking himself into a hospital to get his wounds looked at.

Lee looked rather dismayed at that fact, "But Gai-sensei…!"

Gai shook his head, "Another time Lee. I'm sure if you ever want to test your fires of youth in the future, you could always find Naruto-kun and spar with him some more."

"Please don't." Fighting, sparring or not, against Lee was now firmly one of his 'do not do' things, "Seriously, don't." He doubted even saying that was going to stop the boy.

The girl from before laughed again, "Good luck with that."

Naruto turned to face her, "Okay whatever." He pointed at her and the seemingly brooding Hyuuga beside her, "Okay, I know who the miniature Gai-clone is, but I don't have the slightest clue who you two are."

"Finally, I was wondering when you were going to ask." The girl said, "I'm Tenten." Naruto nodded and turned his head to face the Hyuuga. The Hyuuga just looked at him and didn't even bother speaking, fortunately for him, he had a more social teammate who did the speaking for him, "And he's Neji. Don't mind him, that's just how he is."

Naruto slowly nodded his head in understanding, "Sorts of reminds me of someone." But that person was an Uchiha, and he could understand that. Most Uchiha's seemed to have a brooding nature upon them. Maybe this Neji guy was related to the Uchiha in some way? "Whatever, I'm going to go home now, the run myself a hot bath and soothe my aching bones and bruises." And then probably afterwards, when he felt like it, go to the hot springs, to you know, 'relax'.

He waved at them as he left, limping ever so slightly, "Later."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Thank you for giving me a name for the Yondaime Kazekage Kishi! Nicely played! I'm happy for you.<strong>

**Now that's out of the way, I can now go onto my other grievance with you that I have at the moment.**

**Firstly; Y U NO UPDATE STATS!? Three databooks before, you freely gave us the stats for our beloved characters and when it comes to the last one, you just simply ignore probably the most anticipated part of the whole book? Seriously, no. Just no.**

**Secondly; Seriously, there should be a rulebook for all manga artists that if you're going to make a vast world full of lore and all that other crap, at least have a proper dating system so that people know what they talking about. **

**Nagato and Konan are 35? Fuck that. I just learned that since Minato is alive in my fic and that he died at 24, he should be 36. And also, Chouji I believe during the Pain's Invasion arc noted the Deva Path i.e. Yahiko to be 25-30...but apparently, he died when he was 15. Man, it must have been easy for him to get into bars and clubs when he looked 10 or so years older than he was.**

**I assume and know that Jiraiya took Minato as his student and apprentice after the Ame orphans, but since we don't have a dating system in place, we aren't even told whether this was just straight after the guy popped back into Konoha or years afterwards.**

**Because of that, I'm going to say fuck it and throw that out of the window and thus, for future references, Konan and Nagato are in their early forties. If you have a problem with that, I find myself not really caring (But please don't unfollow me, I live for you following my stories. I don't mean anything I just said, I love you all really.)**

**Well, that's my rant over, peace out people.**

**Leave a review by the way, gotta have those reviews. Makes me feel so appreciated.**

**Raiden.**


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